Prose: In all things
October 26th, 2007
Owen is playing a game of Asteroids on his computer. He’s popped against the divider separating one side of his workspace from the rest on the hub, feet up on his desk, eyes darting wildly from side to side as they follow the exploding debris of rocks. Tosh is the other side of the room, absently flicking through files, face vacant of any interest in watch she’s doing. Over to the right of the hub, Gwen’s looking at her nails, sighing intermittently, twirling her hair through her fingers.
“It’s all go at Torchwood,” Ianto says dryly, carrying a tray of coffees down to the team. He goes to Owen and sets a cup on his desk, peering over his shoulder at the game in front of them.
“You got one coming at you from the left. No, the other left. Look out!”
Owen zooms away from the asteroid only to loose control and fly out of the screen, into another boulder.
“Next time, stick to making coffee!” is the call that follows Ianto as he goes to visit Tosh, chuckling wickedly on his way.
“One white, no sugar,” he says, handing the coffee to Tosh, smiling fondly. She grins up at him and takes the cup with a grateful “thanks”, sipping it experimentally.
“Lovely as usual, Ianto,” she says, placing it back on the desk.
“Don’t we get biscuits?” yells Owen from behind his desk.
“If we all be nice to the tea-boy, we may.” Ianto walks over to Gwen and hands her coffee to her.
“Rich tea biscuits?”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
”You should be working!” Gwen calls over to Owen, tucking her latest issue of Cosmopolitan under a pile of paperwork. Ianto sees the corner sticking out from underneath the mounds of information on weevils and other things, and raises one eyebrow. Gwen follows his line of gaze and hastily pushes the magazine out of sight.
“The new girl can’t tell me that. How long have you been here? A fortnight? For your information, I am working. Don’t you know that the alien races of yesterday used Asteroids as a full-proof training system for learning how to fly?”
“I wondered why they’re always crashing,” remarks Gwen, winking at Ianto who grins back.
“Did I smell coffee?” a voice calls from the top of the stairs, momentarily followed by Jack who appears on the balcony. He jogs down the stairs and pauses beside Owen, looking at the game.
“Watch out for the one on the right. There. No, there.”
“You’re going to get it from behind now,” says Ianto, going to stand beside Jack. Over to their left, they hear Gwen snort into her coffee. They both smile roguishly, eyes fixed on the computer screen even as Jack takes his cup of coffee off the tray and sips it.
“You’re going to get it from behind if you don’t watch out,” mutters Owen, shooting the last of the asteroids out of space. Ianto looks passed the computer and catches Tosh’s eye; they both look away to stop from laughing.
“Right, team. We’ve got to head over to Caerphilly today. There’s been some commotion down by the castle moat and guess whose job it is to check out?”
“I ain’t getting nowhere near any castle drains,” Owen says, shutting off his game and spinning around on his chair to face Jack.
”Thank you for that offer, Owen. You’re now my first port of call in the event that I need some wet action.”
“And on that note, I leave,” says Ianto, picking up his tray and heading for the stairs.
“Rich tea biscuits. I want bloody rich tea biscuits if I’m going anywhere near the piss of medieval lords and ladies.”
“I think you should also let Owen drive, Jack.” Ianto gives him a lop-sided smile. “He’s had more than enough practise driving alien craft.”
“Just watch out for boulders,” says Tosh causing Gwen to laugh again.
Owen instinctively catches the wet-suit type outfit that Jack throws at him.
“I hate you all.”
------
A crackling noise and then…
“Jack, can you hear me?”
“Coming across loud and beautiful, Ianto.”
Ianto rolls his eyes. “Very good, sir. I’m handing you over to Tosh.” He passes Tosh the head set connected to Owen and Jack’s lines, before setting up his own for Gwen. She hooks it up to the system, until Jack’s breathing is audible over the computer speakers.
“Jack?”
“Shoot.”
“There should be a tunnel on your right hand side as you enter. See it?”
Through the speakers Ianto hears the familiar click of a torch being switched on. Jack and Owen’s voices echo in the underground sewers under the castle. On Tosh’s screen, Ianto watches a live feed from the mouth of the drainage system, which flows steadily into the moat surrounding the castle. There’s another two fixed to Jack and Owen’s helmets, and Gwen holds a fourth. She scans it across the castle grounds, trying to find another entrance into the underground passageways of the castle.
On Jack’s feed, he can see Owen’s face. He waves sarcastically before dropping behind Jack who seems to be edging forward, deeper into the sewers. A horrible squelching noise comes across the speakers followed by an immediate groan that’s unmistakeably Jack’s.
“Do you ever have those days when you really feel as though you should’ve kept that job you had as a stripper, instead of wanting more excitement out of life?”
“How much more excitement can you get?”
”Trust me, Owen. You learn a few tricks and then it’s all just the same old.”
“I beg to differ, Jack.”
”Oh yeah? Want to prove that to me some time?”
“Lovely offer, but unfortunately not one that I’d like to take you up on just yet.”
Ianto and Tosh chuckle throughout Jack and Owen’s conversation, Tosh switching between cameras and checking the map for the paths beyond.
“Jack, there’s a tunnel coming up on your left and then another. We’ve got some readings showing up that seem a little unusual.
“Unusual? Are you sure that they aren’t just reading Owen?”
“Oi!”
Ianto grins into his shoulder before looking back at the screen. He’s so engrossed in the dark halls under the castle that he jumps when Gwen’s voice sounds into his ear. His hand goes up to the earpiece instinctively.
“Ianto?”
”Gwen. How’s it going?”
“Seem to have found a large-ish drain near the main hall. If you want I can probably squeeze down there--”
“No. Jack and Owen have it covered; if there’s anything to find, they’ll find it. Is there anyway of dropping your camera into the hole?”
“What’s Ianto talking about now?” says Jack’s voice. Tosh grins at the video feed showing Jack’s face as he looks into Owen’s camera with a imp-like smile on his face.
“Holes. Dropping things into them.”
“Too easy,” replies Jack.
“Which is obviously what Ianto is if he’s talking about things like that.” Owen’s voice now, sounding a little distant, as though he’s dropped his ear piece. “I can’t see a fucking thing in this--”
There’s a sound on the radio, like two bodies colliding into each other, before stillness.
“Jack?”
“What?” It’s Gwen’s voice. Ianto still had been speaking into his headset.
“Sorry Gwen. Forgot you were on the line.”
“Here, let me,” Tosh says, fiddling with her head set that’s still connected to the system. “Jack? What have you found?”
The live feeds on Owen and Jack’s cameras are dim and murky as Ianto tries to make out the odd shapes. There’s static coming over the speakers, as though one or both of the men’s headsets have been dropped en route.
“Jack? Owen? What’s there?”
“Quiet.” Jack’s voice is low. It raises the hairs on the back of Ianto’s neck. He’s only heard Jack speak like this a few times, and he’s certain that whatever Jack and Owen are near can’t be good. “Where’s Gwen?”
“According to the map, she should be three yards east of you.”
“Gwen, you hear me?”
“Yes, Jack.”
“Put that camera in the hole now. Tosh, have a look at this.”
Ianto frowns as Gwen’s camera pans the area beneath where she stands. It takes a second for him to make out anything in the dark recesses, but as soon as he does he recoils from the computer, just as Toshiko lets out a sharp his.
“Jack! They’re Sea Devils! Or… well… it looks like their young.”
“I know what they are, Tosh. I need a cleanup here, right now. And if there’s young, there’s got to be a mommy and daddy somewhere.”
“If the young look like that then what do the mum and dad look like?” Gwen’s voice sounds as shaken as Ianto feels.
”That,” says Jack, and even in the dim light of the sewers, Ianto can tell that their captain’s face is white, “is something you don’t wanna wish to find out.”
------
“Never ever again. Never. Ever. Again. Never. Again. Ever.”
“Yes, we all get the point, Owen,” says Tosh, sighing heavily as she takes the stinking wet suits and equipment off Owen. Jack’s close behind Owen, shaking his hair dry from a fresh shower and doing up the top buttons on the new shirt that he’s put on.
“I think that went rather well.”
“Swimmingly,” says Ianto, coming down the steps with coffees and, much to Owen’s delight, rich tea biscuits.
“The parents… they… you killed…” Gwen sits on the steps by Jack’s office, staring into emptiness. “A whole family…”
“They’re aliens, Gwen. Not great ones. Sometimes you’ve gotta kill things, no matter how human they may seem.”
Gwen raises her eyes to Jack as Ianto looks down at his tray of coffee.
“I’m going to be rubbish at this job.”
“Nah, you’re not,” Owen mumbles through a mouthful of biscuit. “We were all like that in the beginning. Never with ugly, human-destroying aliens mind you, but we were all the same. I bet Ianto here fainted the first time he saw a weevil.”
Ianto doesn’t even have change to reply before Jack’s butted in. “Ianto here was the only person who dared go near the things when we were trying to study them at first, unlike some people.” He stares pointedly at Owen who at least has the grace (or perhaps it’s just indignance) to blush.
“Readings are going back to normal.” Tosh comes back from the autopsy room after dropping the wet-suits off and sits at her desk, typing the keys quickly to bring up several different surveys of the area.
“Good job, team.” Jack looks over to Gwen. “Good job, Gwen.” Ianto watches as Jack disappears into his office, ruffling Gwen’s hair as he goes.
“Who’s for coffee?” Ianto calls, holding his tray a little higher, looking away from Jack’s door which has just been closed.
“That would be lovely, Ianto,” says Tosh, coming to him and getting her drink.
“Cheers, mate.” Owen’s next in line. He takes four biscuits before reaching for his coffee.
“Ta, Ianto,” Gwen murmurs as she reaches him and the tray.
“You did great, just like Jack said. You get used to it.”
You do, he thinks. He remembers the first time that he saw an alien be restrained and killed, when he came into Torchwood One a week after his 21st birthday. He’d stayed flat against the wall until Lisa had dragged him away to get a coffee. It was how they met. He swallows. It’s getting harder to keep secrets.
Gwen nods. “Thanks. I hope so.”
Ianto smiles softly. “Biscuit?”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“It’s all go at Torchwood,” Ianto mutter’s under his breath, glancing toward Jack’s office before pursing his lips and heading in the opposite direction, towards the basement.
------
To: "Gwen Cooper"
Sent: Saturday, Oct 26, 2007 18:54 PM
From: "Jack Harkness"
Subject: In all things
In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.
It’s your heart who makes you who you are, Gwen.
You did well today.
J
To: "Jack Harkness"
Sent: Saturday, Oct 26, 2007 18:58 PM
From: "Gwen Cooper"
Subject: RE: In all things
Thank you, Jack. See you Monday.
------
Owen is playing a game of Asteroids on his computer. He’s popped against the divider separating one side of his workspace from the rest on the hub, feet up on his desk, eyes darting wildly from side to side as they follow the exploding debris of rocks. Tosh is the other side of the room, absently flicking through files, face vacant of any interest in watch she’s doing. Over to the right of the hub, Gwen’s looking at her nails, sighing intermittently, twirling her hair through her fingers.
“It’s all go at Torchwood,” Ianto says dryly, carrying a tray of coffees down to the team. He goes to Owen and sets a cup on his desk, peering over his shoulder at the game in front of them.
“You got one coming at you from the left. No, the other left. Look out!”
Owen zooms away from the asteroid only to loose control and fly out of the screen, into another boulder.
“Next time, stick to making coffee!” is the call that follows Ianto as he goes to visit Tosh, chuckling wickedly on his way.
“One white, no sugar,” he says, handing the coffee to Tosh, smiling fondly. She grins up at him and takes the cup with a grateful “thanks”, sipping it experimentally.
“Lovely as usual, Ianto,” she says, placing it back on the desk.
“Don’t we get biscuits?” yells Owen from behind his desk.
“If we all be nice to the tea-boy, we may.” Ianto walks over to Gwen and hands her coffee to her.
“Rich tea biscuits?”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
”You should be working!” Gwen calls over to Owen, tucking her latest issue of Cosmopolitan under a pile of paperwork. Ianto sees the corner sticking out from underneath the mounds of information on weevils and other things, and raises one eyebrow. Gwen follows his line of gaze and hastily pushes the magazine out of sight.
“The new girl can’t tell me that. How long have you been here? A fortnight? For your information, I am working. Don’t you know that the alien races of yesterday used Asteroids as a full-proof training system for learning how to fly?”
“I wondered why they’re always crashing,” remarks Gwen, winking at Ianto who grins back.
“Did I smell coffee?” a voice calls from the top of the stairs, momentarily followed by Jack who appears on the balcony. He jogs down the stairs and pauses beside Owen, looking at the game.
“Watch out for the one on the right. There. No, there.”
“You’re going to get it from behind now,” says Ianto, going to stand beside Jack. Over to their left, they hear Gwen snort into her coffee. They both smile roguishly, eyes fixed on the computer screen even as Jack takes his cup of coffee off the tray and sips it.
“You’re going to get it from behind if you don’t watch out,” mutters Owen, shooting the last of the asteroids out of space. Ianto looks passed the computer and catches Tosh’s eye; they both look away to stop from laughing.
“Right, team. We’ve got to head over to Caerphilly today. There’s been some commotion down by the castle moat and guess whose job it is to check out?”
“I ain’t getting nowhere near any castle drains,” Owen says, shutting off his game and spinning around on his chair to face Jack.
”Thank you for that offer, Owen. You’re now my first port of call in the event that I need some wet action.”
“And on that note, I leave,” says Ianto, picking up his tray and heading for the stairs.
“Rich tea biscuits. I want bloody rich tea biscuits if I’m going anywhere near the piss of medieval lords and ladies.”
“I think you should also let Owen drive, Jack.” Ianto gives him a lop-sided smile. “He’s had more than enough practise driving alien craft.”
“Just watch out for boulders,” says Tosh causing Gwen to laugh again.
Owen instinctively catches the wet-suit type outfit that Jack throws at him.
“I hate you all.”
------
A crackling noise and then…
“Jack, can you hear me?”
“Coming across loud and beautiful, Ianto.”
Ianto rolls his eyes. “Very good, sir. I’m handing you over to Tosh.” He passes Tosh the head set connected to Owen and Jack’s lines, before setting up his own for Gwen. She hooks it up to the system, until Jack’s breathing is audible over the computer speakers.
“Jack?”
“Shoot.”
“There should be a tunnel on your right hand side as you enter. See it?”
Through the speakers Ianto hears the familiar click of a torch being switched on. Jack and Owen’s voices echo in the underground sewers under the castle. On Tosh’s screen, Ianto watches a live feed from the mouth of the drainage system, which flows steadily into the moat surrounding the castle. There’s another two fixed to Jack and Owen’s helmets, and Gwen holds a fourth. She scans it across the castle grounds, trying to find another entrance into the underground passageways of the castle.
On Jack’s feed, he can see Owen’s face. He waves sarcastically before dropping behind Jack who seems to be edging forward, deeper into the sewers. A horrible squelching noise comes across the speakers followed by an immediate groan that’s unmistakeably Jack’s.
“Do you ever have those days when you really feel as though you should’ve kept that job you had as a stripper, instead of wanting more excitement out of life?”
“How much more excitement can you get?”
”Trust me, Owen. You learn a few tricks and then it’s all just the same old.”
“I beg to differ, Jack.”
”Oh yeah? Want to prove that to me some time?”
“Lovely offer, but unfortunately not one that I’d like to take you up on just yet.”
Ianto and Tosh chuckle throughout Jack and Owen’s conversation, Tosh switching between cameras and checking the map for the paths beyond.
“Jack, there’s a tunnel coming up on your left and then another. We’ve got some readings showing up that seem a little unusual.
“Unusual? Are you sure that they aren’t just reading Owen?”
“Oi!”
Ianto grins into his shoulder before looking back at the screen. He’s so engrossed in the dark halls under the castle that he jumps when Gwen’s voice sounds into his ear. His hand goes up to the earpiece instinctively.
“Ianto?”
”Gwen. How’s it going?”
“Seem to have found a large-ish drain near the main hall. If you want I can probably squeeze down there--”
“No. Jack and Owen have it covered; if there’s anything to find, they’ll find it. Is there anyway of dropping your camera into the hole?”
“What’s Ianto talking about now?” says Jack’s voice. Tosh grins at the video feed showing Jack’s face as he looks into Owen’s camera with a imp-like smile on his face.
“Holes. Dropping things into them.”
“Too easy,” replies Jack.
“Which is obviously what Ianto is if he’s talking about things like that.” Owen’s voice now, sounding a little distant, as though he’s dropped his ear piece. “I can’t see a fucking thing in this--”
There’s a sound on the radio, like two bodies colliding into each other, before stillness.
“Jack?”
“What?” It’s Gwen’s voice. Ianto still had been speaking into his headset.
“Sorry Gwen. Forgot you were on the line.”
“Here, let me,” Tosh says, fiddling with her head set that’s still connected to the system. “Jack? What have you found?”
The live feeds on Owen and Jack’s cameras are dim and murky as Ianto tries to make out the odd shapes. There’s static coming over the speakers, as though one or both of the men’s headsets have been dropped en route.
“Jack? Owen? What’s there?”
“Quiet.” Jack’s voice is low. It raises the hairs on the back of Ianto’s neck. He’s only heard Jack speak like this a few times, and he’s certain that whatever Jack and Owen are near can’t be good. “Where’s Gwen?”
“According to the map, she should be three yards east of you.”
“Gwen, you hear me?”
“Yes, Jack.”
“Put that camera in the hole now. Tosh, have a look at this.”
Ianto frowns as Gwen’s camera pans the area beneath where she stands. It takes a second for him to make out anything in the dark recesses, but as soon as he does he recoils from the computer, just as Toshiko lets out a sharp his.
“Jack! They’re Sea Devils! Or… well… it looks like their young.”
“I know what they are, Tosh. I need a cleanup here, right now. And if there’s young, there’s got to be a mommy and daddy somewhere.”
“If the young look like that then what do the mum and dad look like?” Gwen’s voice sounds as shaken as Ianto feels.
”That,” says Jack, and even in the dim light of the sewers, Ianto can tell that their captain’s face is white, “is something you don’t wanna wish to find out.”
------
“Never ever again. Never. Ever. Again. Never. Again. Ever.”
“Yes, we all get the point, Owen,” says Tosh, sighing heavily as she takes the stinking wet suits and equipment off Owen. Jack’s close behind Owen, shaking his hair dry from a fresh shower and doing up the top buttons on the new shirt that he’s put on.
“I think that went rather well.”
“Swimmingly,” says Ianto, coming down the steps with coffees and, much to Owen’s delight, rich tea biscuits.
“The parents… they… you killed…” Gwen sits on the steps by Jack’s office, staring into emptiness. “A whole family…”
“They’re aliens, Gwen. Not great ones. Sometimes you’ve gotta kill things, no matter how human they may seem.”
Gwen raises her eyes to Jack as Ianto looks down at his tray of coffee.
“I’m going to be rubbish at this job.”
“Nah, you’re not,” Owen mumbles through a mouthful of biscuit. “We were all like that in the beginning. Never with ugly, human-destroying aliens mind you, but we were all the same. I bet Ianto here fainted the first time he saw a weevil.”
Ianto doesn’t even have change to reply before Jack’s butted in. “Ianto here was the only person who dared go near the things when we were trying to study them at first, unlike some people.” He stares pointedly at Owen who at least has the grace (or perhaps it’s just indignance) to blush.
“Readings are going back to normal.” Tosh comes back from the autopsy room after dropping the wet-suits off and sits at her desk, typing the keys quickly to bring up several different surveys of the area.
“Good job, team.” Jack looks over to Gwen. “Good job, Gwen.” Ianto watches as Jack disappears into his office, ruffling Gwen’s hair as he goes.
“Who’s for coffee?” Ianto calls, holding his tray a little higher, looking away from Jack’s door which has just been closed.
“That would be lovely, Ianto,” says Tosh, coming to him and getting her drink.
“Cheers, mate.” Owen’s next in line. He takes four biscuits before reaching for his coffee.
“Ta, Ianto,” Gwen murmurs as she reaches him and the tray.
“You did great, just like Jack said. You get used to it.”
You do, he thinks. He remembers the first time that he saw an alien be restrained and killed, when he came into Torchwood One a week after his 21st birthday. He’d stayed flat against the wall until Lisa had dragged him away to get a coffee. It was how they met. He swallows. It’s getting harder to keep secrets.
Gwen nods. “Thanks. I hope so.”
Ianto smiles softly. “Biscuit?”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“It’s all go at Torchwood,” Ianto mutter’s under his breath, glancing toward Jack’s office before pursing his lips and heading in the opposite direction, towards the basement.
------
To: "Gwen Cooper"
Sent: Saturday, Oct 26, 2007 18:54 PM
From: "Jack Harkness"
Subject: In all things
In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.
It’s your heart who makes you who you are, Gwen.
You did well today.
J
To: "Jack Harkness"
Sent: Saturday, Oct 26, 2007 18:58 PM
From: "Gwen Cooper"
Subject: RE: In all things
Thank you, Jack. See you Monday.
------