Ficlet: Something Happened
Title: Something Happened
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: The SUV was fine the last time Ianto saw it, but it isn’t now. Something must have happened.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 173: Dent at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Ianto frowned, checked again, looked at the sleek black surface from several angles, but he wasn’t imagining it. There was a definite dent in the SUV’s bonnet. Further inspection revealed a second dent, this one in the front wing on the passenger’s side, and a third in the front door on the same side. What was odd was that although the dents were quite distinct, there were no scratches or scuff marks anywhere on the vehicle. In fact, aside from the dents the bodywork seemed to be in pristine condition.
He went around the other side, and wasn’t all that surprised to find that was dented too, although it was a single large dent in the rear passenger door. There was something fishy about the whole thing. Leaving the dents to be dealt with later, Ianto marched up to Jack’s office, determined to get answers.
“Jack?”
“Ianto!” Jack grinned brightly at him from his seat behind the desk, but the smile seemed strained, almost brittle. “How are you this fine day?”
Refusing to be distracted, Ianto fixed his lover with a stern stare. “Did anything happen last night after I left?”
“You’ll have to be more specific. Lots of things happened. Things are always happening. Things don’t simply stop when you’re not here. They don’t even stop when I’m not here.”
Jack was babbling; that was never a good sign.
“You want specifics? Fine. When I left here last night the SUV was in perfect condition. This morning I go to check if anything needs re-stocking and find it’s full of dents!”
As Ianto spoke, Jack’s forced smile slowly faded away, leaving behind a wide-eyed, haunted expression. With shaking hands he reached for the decanter on his desk and poured himself a stiff drink, slopping some of the Scotch over the edge, then knocked it back in one gulp.
Now Ianto was really worried; Jack never drank so early in the morning, and under normal circumstances he had the steadiest hands of anyone he’d ever met.
“I was hoping it was just a bad dream, but if the dents are there it really must have happened.”
“You’re not making any sense. Why don’t you start from the beginning.”
Jack nodded, pouring himself another drink. “It was maybe two-thirty in the morning and there was a Rift alert, a big one, so I drove out to the coordinates, out towards Blackwood. When I got there, nothing seemed to be happening, so I pulled off the road to check the computers and there was a massive Rift flare. It was like the sky split open right above me and then…” Jack shuddered. “A huge, hairy hand reached down, picked the SUV up like it was a toy, and an eye the size of a double-decker bus peered at me through the windscreen. Then the thing put the SUV down and the sky closed. When I stopped shaking I drove back here.”
Ianto stared at Jack. “Right. I’d better go fix those dents.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: The SUV was fine the last time Ianto saw it, but it isn’t now. Something must have happened.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 173: Dent at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Ianto frowned, checked again, looked at the sleek black surface from several angles, but he wasn’t imagining it. There was a definite dent in the SUV’s bonnet. Further inspection revealed a second dent, this one in the front wing on the passenger’s side, and a third in the front door on the same side. What was odd was that although the dents were quite distinct, there were no scratches or scuff marks anywhere on the vehicle. In fact, aside from the dents the bodywork seemed to be in pristine condition.
He went around the other side, and wasn’t all that surprised to find that was dented too, although it was a single large dent in the rear passenger door. There was something fishy about the whole thing. Leaving the dents to be dealt with later, Ianto marched up to Jack’s office, determined to get answers.
“Jack?”
“Ianto!” Jack grinned brightly at him from his seat behind the desk, but the smile seemed strained, almost brittle. “How are you this fine day?”
Refusing to be distracted, Ianto fixed his lover with a stern stare. “Did anything happen last night after I left?”
“You’ll have to be more specific. Lots of things happened. Things are always happening. Things don’t simply stop when you’re not here. They don’t even stop when I’m not here.”
Jack was babbling; that was never a good sign.
“You want specifics? Fine. When I left here last night the SUV was in perfect condition. This morning I go to check if anything needs re-stocking and find it’s full of dents!”
As Ianto spoke, Jack’s forced smile slowly faded away, leaving behind a wide-eyed, haunted expression. With shaking hands he reached for the decanter on his desk and poured himself a stiff drink, slopping some of the Scotch over the edge, then knocked it back in one gulp.
Now Ianto was really worried; Jack never drank so early in the morning, and under normal circumstances he had the steadiest hands of anyone he’d ever met.
“I was hoping it was just a bad dream, but if the dents are there it really must have happened.”
“You’re not making any sense. Why don’t you start from the beginning.”
Jack nodded, pouring himself another drink. “It was maybe two-thirty in the morning and there was a Rift alert, a big one, so I drove out to the coordinates, out towards Blackwood. When I got there, nothing seemed to be happening, so I pulled off the road to check the computers and there was a massive Rift flare. It was like the sky split open right above me and then…” Jack shuddered. “A huge, hairy hand reached down, picked the SUV up like it was a toy, and an eye the size of a double-decker bus peered at me through the windscreen. Then the thing put the SUV down and the sky closed. When I stopped shaking I drove back here.”
Ianto stared at Jack. “Right. I’d better go fix those dents.”
The End