Perfect
Title: Perfect
Author: jooles34
Characters: Ianto, Gwen mainly, some Owen and Tosh
Rating: PG
Prompt: Written for tw_unpaired prompt 74: Gwen has to bail Ianto out of jail. Circumstances are up to you.
Discalaimer: Nope, don't own Torchwood
AN: Set between seasons 1 and 2
Beta: Huge thanks to lisa725 for picking up my stupid mistakes and turning this around so quickly.
Gwen stood and hovered by the door with her hand resting on the catch, but not quite able to flip it open. She shook herself mentally and silently berated herself. She had spent years chasing down criminals and the last year facing the end of the world and the worst scum of the Universe, so she shouldn’t be this scared of facing this one man now.
The problem was that Gwen could feel the glare withering her even through an inch-thick, metal door. He would have heard her voice along the corridor and know that she was here by now. She took a deep breath, flicked the catch, and let the hatch fall open so that she could see inside the cell.
“Morning, Ianto,” she said as brightly as she could. “I know the custody sergeant. He let me come down and say hello.”
“Good morning, Gwen,” Ianto replied from inside the cell. The words were perfectly civil, but the tone contained more steel than the door that separated them. And the glare was everything she had expected it to be.
Gwen swallowed and looked him over - anything to avoid his eyes. Ianto was sitting on the bench in the cell, facing the door. He was leaning back against the wall with his head tipped casually back against the plaster. His hands rested loosely on the top of his thighs as he regarded her through the small hatch in the door.
He looked like Ianto, except without his usual perfect sheen. His shoes were shiny as always, but undone. The leather was hanging loosely around his feet, his laces having been confiscated. The suit trousers still held their crease, but they sat low on his hips as he had been made to give up his belt too. He was jacketless, which appeared to be by choice, but, as his tie was also gone, his shirt was open at the throat.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up his arms and neatly folded just below the elbow. Gwen knew he would have had his cufflinks taken too. His arms looked oddly naked, emphasised by the additional lack of his watch. She marvelled briefly at how relaxed he appeared in his surroundings despite the anger coolly radiating off him. She wondered if there was any situation you could put Ianto into where he wouldn’t chameleon himself into the background until he looked like he belonged there.
“Did you sleep okay?” she asked and regretted it almost instantly. The glare flickered just enough to allow one eyebrow to raise in distain.
“Perfectly well, thank you.”
“Marvellous.” Gwen winced at her own over enthusiasm. She softened her tone but kept her smile as natural as possible.
“I’m here now. I’ll have you out in a flash, love.”
Ianto nodded slightly as she closed the hatch and flicked the catch over it again.
“Oh, we are so dead when he gets back to the Hub.” Gwen pulled a face at the wall before composing herself again and preparing to go and charm the desk sergeant some more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The four of them froze in the office as sirens sounded in the distance.
“I think we’ve been rumbled,” Owen stated rather unnecessarily.
“I thought you said you had all the security systems under control, Tosh.” Gwen said.
“I did. I do. I don’t understand it.” She consulted her PDA, an intent expression on her face.
Ianto pulled out his own PDA and quickly typed a few keys. “I’ve got into local dispatch. They’re definitely on their way here. It’s too late to do an intercept without revealing that we’re here.”
Gwen let out a noise of frustration. “We can’t let the police know we’re involved in this one. This isn’t one of those occasions where we can just Torchwood our way out of it.”
Ianto spoke again. “They’re nearly here. We have to get out now.”
“If they find the place empty but with signs of a break-in, they’ll widen the search and start stopping traffic and pedestrians in the area.”
“Then we need to make sure they don’t find it empty.”
Gwen smiled at Ianto and slapped a hand on his back. “Well volunteered, love. Always taking one for the team you, aren’t you?” She started heading for the back door of the office, followed by Tosh and Owen. “Don’t worry, love. I’ll head down to the nick as soon as I can and sort it all out.”
“But…but…” Ianto was rendered speechless and frozen to the spot. He’d never been great at reacting when situations turned like this, and Gwen’s words were as good as a direct order. “No, I really don’t think this is a good idea. Why can’t one of you…”
“Don’t worry, mate. It will all be fine. You’ve got a pretty face, and you look all respectable in your suit. I’m sure you’ll be ever so well looked after in prison. They’ll think you’re some white collar mastermind or something” As he spoke, Owen’s hands were under Ianto’s jacket, running over his body, deftly avoiding the other man’s hands as he swiped ineffectually at him. Ianto’s gun, stun gun, and PDA were quickly passed back to Tosh. Owen snatched his wallet last of all as Gwen called to them from the back door, and Tosh was well into her retreat. Owen turned just before he left and threw the wallet - sans Torchwood ID - back to him.
Owen flashed him a grin. “Thanks, mate!” And then he, too, disappeared through the door.
Ianto stared open mouthed and glanced around the now-empty room as the sirens got closer. With a resigned sigh he stood passively with his hands out to the side as the first two responding offers walked in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
It took a further hour and a half of sweet-talking and name-dropping for Gwen to secure Ianto’s release without letting on that the break-in at the office building had been a Torchwood job. Of course if Gwen had known the full story last night, things might have been done a little differently.
She now braced herself for the appearance of a seething Welshman and was pleased she did. Ianto’s glare got even more severe as he was led down the corridor towards her. Gwen didn’t even try for a friendly smile this time. She knew none of them would be hearing the last of this for a long time.
A plastic bag containing Ianto’s belongings already sat on the counter. Gwen had one last form to complete while Ianto signed for his bag, before ripping it open and pulling his belt out.
Lowering his head and hiding behind the pretence of threading his belt onto his trousers, he leaned his mouth next to Gwen’s ear.
“What took so fucking long?”
Gwen tilted her head away from the sergeant so she was talking directly to Ianto.
“You didn’t tell me you already have a conviction for shoplifting! It made talking you out of here considerably harder!” she countered angrily in low voice.
“I didn’t exactly get much of a chance to say anything last night.” Ianto hissed back.
“Er, is everything okay?” the custody sergeant asked.
Ianto and Gwen’s heads snapped up at the same time, a well practiced ‘nothing to see here’ smile plastered across both their faces.
“Fine.” Ianto said.
“Oh, everything’s fine, thank you,” Gwen replied at the same time. “Come on, Ianto. Grab your bag. Let’s leave these officers to do their job.”
They both gave the plastic grin to the policeman again, and Ianto grabbed his bag, tucked his jacket under one arm, and followed Gwen through the door. His progress was hampered somewhat by the lack of laces in his shoes. Gwen tried not to snigger at the sound of shuffling from behind her; she felt it was rather more than her life was worth right now.
As they shuffled and walked back to Gwen’s car in the station’s car park, Ianto slipped his watch onto his wrist and started to roll down his shirt sleeves.
“All night, Gwen! How did it take all night for you to get here? I put in that call to ‘my sister’ at 2 am!”
He thunked his bag down on the roof of the car and threw his jacket next to it. He fixed Gwen with a look over the top of the car as he fished in the bag for his cufflinks.
Gwen stood by the driver’s door, key in hand, and glared back at Ianto. “It had to be believable. How many ex-coppers turn up at a police station in the middle of the night to try to sweet talk the little brother of a ‘friend’ out of custody?” Gwen punctuated the end of her rant by clicking the button on her key fob and unlocking the car doors. Ianto had threaded his cufflinks through his buttonholes by now. Before opening his car door, he shrugged his jacket on and grabbed the bag from the roof of the car.
Seatbelt on, Ianto reached into the bag again and pulled out his shoe laces. He was bent forwards and rethreading his shoes as Gwen pulled out of the car park.
“And don’t you just blame us for this.” Gwen was on a roll now. It was much easier addressing Ianto’s bent back than his furious gaze. “Bloody shoplifting! What were you thinking?”
“I was seventeen. I didn’t think very much about anything.” answered Ianto from the footwell, now hard at work on his second shoe.
Gwen tried a smile on for size, as Ianto’s tone was calming considerably.
“Ianto Jones. Developing quite a rap sheet for yourself now.”
A chuckle came from Ianto as he straightened and pulled his tie from the bag. “Don’t worry. I’ll give it a few days, and then I’ll hack into their systems and delete all the records from last night. It will be like it never happened.”
Gwen gave him a sideways look. His tie was now tied tight again, a perfect knot nestling under his Adam’s apple. Her eyes ran over him. He was all neat and tidy - perfectly Ianto again.
“What I don’t understand is why you’ve never deleted the old conviction. You could have done it easily.”
Ianto smiled. “Oh, it wouldn’t do to be too perfect, now would it?”
Gwen turned to him in surprise, and he winked at her.
Author: jooles34
Characters: Ianto, Gwen mainly, some Owen and Tosh
Rating: PG
Prompt: Written for tw_unpaired prompt 74: Gwen has to bail Ianto out of jail. Circumstances are up to you.
Discalaimer: Nope, don't own Torchwood
AN: Set between seasons 1 and 2
Beta: Huge thanks to lisa725 for picking up my stupid mistakes and turning this around so quickly.
Gwen stood and hovered by the door with her hand resting on the catch, but not quite able to flip it open. She shook herself mentally and silently berated herself. She had spent years chasing down criminals and the last year facing the end of the world and the worst scum of the Universe, so she shouldn’t be this scared of facing this one man now.
The problem was that Gwen could feel the glare withering her even through an inch-thick, metal door. He would have heard her voice along the corridor and know that she was here by now. She took a deep breath, flicked the catch, and let the hatch fall open so that she could see inside the cell.
“Morning, Ianto,” she said as brightly as she could. “I know the custody sergeant. He let me come down and say hello.”
“Good morning, Gwen,” Ianto replied from inside the cell. The words were perfectly civil, but the tone contained more steel than the door that separated them. And the glare was everything she had expected it to be.
Gwen swallowed and looked him over - anything to avoid his eyes. Ianto was sitting on the bench in the cell, facing the door. He was leaning back against the wall with his head tipped casually back against the plaster. His hands rested loosely on the top of his thighs as he regarded her through the small hatch in the door.
He looked like Ianto, except without his usual perfect sheen. His shoes were shiny as always, but undone. The leather was hanging loosely around his feet, his laces having been confiscated. The suit trousers still held their crease, but they sat low on his hips as he had been made to give up his belt too. He was jacketless, which appeared to be by choice, but, as his tie was also gone, his shirt was open at the throat.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up his arms and neatly folded just below the elbow. Gwen knew he would have had his cufflinks taken too. His arms looked oddly naked, emphasised by the additional lack of his watch. She marvelled briefly at how relaxed he appeared in his surroundings despite the anger coolly radiating off him. She wondered if there was any situation you could put Ianto into where he wouldn’t chameleon himself into the background until he looked like he belonged there.
“Did you sleep okay?” she asked and regretted it almost instantly. The glare flickered just enough to allow one eyebrow to raise in distain.
“Perfectly well, thank you.”
“Marvellous.” Gwen winced at her own over enthusiasm. She softened her tone but kept her smile as natural as possible.
“I’m here now. I’ll have you out in a flash, love.”
Ianto nodded slightly as she closed the hatch and flicked the catch over it again.
“Oh, we are so dead when he gets back to the Hub.” Gwen pulled a face at the wall before composing herself again and preparing to go and charm the desk sergeant some more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The four of them froze in the office as sirens sounded in the distance.
“I think we’ve been rumbled,” Owen stated rather unnecessarily.
“I thought you said you had all the security systems under control, Tosh.” Gwen said.
“I did. I do. I don’t understand it.” She consulted her PDA, an intent expression on her face.
Ianto pulled out his own PDA and quickly typed a few keys. “I’ve got into local dispatch. They’re definitely on their way here. It’s too late to do an intercept without revealing that we’re here.”
Gwen let out a noise of frustration. “We can’t let the police know we’re involved in this one. This isn’t one of those occasions where we can just Torchwood our way out of it.”
Ianto spoke again. “They’re nearly here. We have to get out now.”
“If they find the place empty but with signs of a break-in, they’ll widen the search and start stopping traffic and pedestrians in the area.”
“Then we need to make sure they don’t find it empty.”
Gwen smiled at Ianto and slapped a hand on his back. “Well volunteered, love. Always taking one for the team you, aren’t you?” She started heading for the back door of the office, followed by Tosh and Owen. “Don’t worry, love. I’ll head down to the nick as soon as I can and sort it all out.”
“But…but…” Ianto was rendered speechless and frozen to the spot. He’d never been great at reacting when situations turned like this, and Gwen’s words were as good as a direct order. “No, I really don’t think this is a good idea. Why can’t one of you…”
“Don’t worry, mate. It will all be fine. You’ve got a pretty face, and you look all respectable in your suit. I’m sure you’ll be ever so well looked after in prison. They’ll think you’re some white collar mastermind or something” As he spoke, Owen’s hands were under Ianto’s jacket, running over his body, deftly avoiding the other man’s hands as he swiped ineffectually at him. Ianto’s gun, stun gun, and PDA were quickly passed back to Tosh. Owen snatched his wallet last of all as Gwen called to them from the back door, and Tosh was well into her retreat. Owen turned just before he left and threw the wallet - sans Torchwood ID - back to him.
Owen flashed him a grin. “Thanks, mate!” And then he, too, disappeared through the door.
Ianto stared open mouthed and glanced around the now-empty room as the sirens got closer. With a resigned sigh he stood passively with his hands out to the side as the first two responding offers walked in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
It took a further hour and a half of sweet-talking and name-dropping for Gwen to secure Ianto’s release without letting on that the break-in at the office building had been a Torchwood job. Of course if Gwen had known the full story last night, things might have been done a little differently.
She now braced herself for the appearance of a seething Welshman and was pleased she did. Ianto’s glare got even more severe as he was led down the corridor towards her. Gwen didn’t even try for a friendly smile this time. She knew none of them would be hearing the last of this for a long time.
A plastic bag containing Ianto’s belongings already sat on the counter. Gwen had one last form to complete while Ianto signed for his bag, before ripping it open and pulling his belt out.
Lowering his head and hiding behind the pretence of threading his belt onto his trousers, he leaned his mouth next to Gwen’s ear.
“What took so fucking long?”
Gwen tilted her head away from the sergeant so she was talking directly to Ianto.
“You didn’t tell me you already have a conviction for shoplifting! It made talking you out of here considerably harder!” she countered angrily in low voice.
“I didn’t exactly get much of a chance to say anything last night.” Ianto hissed back.
“Er, is everything okay?” the custody sergeant asked.
Ianto and Gwen’s heads snapped up at the same time, a well practiced ‘nothing to see here’ smile plastered across both their faces.
“Fine.” Ianto said.
“Oh, everything’s fine, thank you,” Gwen replied at the same time. “Come on, Ianto. Grab your bag. Let’s leave these officers to do their job.”
They both gave the plastic grin to the policeman again, and Ianto grabbed his bag, tucked his jacket under one arm, and followed Gwen through the door. His progress was hampered somewhat by the lack of laces in his shoes. Gwen tried not to snigger at the sound of shuffling from behind her; she felt it was rather more than her life was worth right now.
As they shuffled and walked back to Gwen’s car in the station’s car park, Ianto slipped his watch onto his wrist and started to roll down his shirt sleeves.
“All night, Gwen! How did it take all night for you to get here? I put in that call to ‘my sister’ at 2 am!”
He thunked his bag down on the roof of the car and threw his jacket next to it. He fixed Gwen with a look over the top of the car as he fished in the bag for his cufflinks.
Gwen stood by the driver’s door, key in hand, and glared back at Ianto. “It had to be believable. How many ex-coppers turn up at a police station in the middle of the night to try to sweet talk the little brother of a ‘friend’ out of custody?” Gwen punctuated the end of her rant by clicking the button on her key fob and unlocking the car doors. Ianto had threaded his cufflinks through his buttonholes by now. Before opening his car door, he shrugged his jacket on and grabbed the bag from the roof of the car.
Seatbelt on, Ianto reached into the bag again and pulled out his shoe laces. He was bent forwards and rethreading his shoes as Gwen pulled out of the car park.
“And don’t you just blame us for this.” Gwen was on a roll now. It was much easier addressing Ianto’s bent back than his furious gaze. “Bloody shoplifting! What were you thinking?”
“I was seventeen. I didn’t think very much about anything.” answered Ianto from the footwell, now hard at work on his second shoe.
Gwen tried a smile on for size, as Ianto’s tone was calming considerably.
“Ianto Jones. Developing quite a rap sheet for yourself now.”
A chuckle came from Ianto as he straightened and pulled his tie from the bag. “Don’t worry. I’ll give it a few days, and then I’ll hack into their systems and delete all the records from last night. It will be like it never happened.”
Gwen gave him a sideways look. His tie was now tied tight again, a perfect knot nestling under his Adam’s apple. Her eyes ran over him. He was all neat and tidy - perfectly Ianto again.
“What I don’t understand is why you’ve never deleted the old conviction. You could have done it easily.”
Ianto smiled. “Oh, it wouldn’t do to be too perfect, now would it?”
Gwen turned to him in surprise, and he winked at her.