Fic: Mission Of Mercy
Title: Mission Of Mercy
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Kathy Swanson, Others.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada
Summary: Ianto is travelling to London for meetings with UNIT, but he’s forgotten something essential.
Word Count: 2399
Written For: My genprompt_bingo square ‘Water’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
“Call me when you get there?” Jack asked, as Ianto prepared to board the train for London and another tedious round of meetings with UNIT to ‘share information’. “Just so I know you arrived safely.”
“You’re such a worrywart at times,” Into replied with a smile. “But yes, I will call you when I get to London, or would you prefer I wait until I’m at the hotel?” Because the meetings would no doubt run late into the evening, he’d be staying in the capital overnight and catching the train back in the morning.
“Call from the station. You can call me again from your hotel room later,” Jack said with a wink and a leer. “I’m sure we’ll be able to think of something to talk about then.”
“Of course we will.” Ianto rolled his eyes affectionately. “I already know how that conversation will go. I’d better get aboard before the train leaves without me.”
Catching Ianto’s hand before he could turn away, Jack pulled him close for a lingering kiss. “Miss you already. See you tomorrow, and have a safe trip. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Right, anything goes then,” Ianto teased. “Try not to make too much of a mess while I’m gone. Oh, almost forgot to tell you, I left you a flask of coffee in your bottom desk drawer, where Owen won’t find it. Should be enough to last you most of the day. The others will have to get theirs from the coffee shop.”
Jack fairly beamed at his lover’s thoughtfulness. “You think of everything! Whatever did I do to deserve you?”
“I have no idea,” Ianto said, completely deadpan. “It’s a mystery to me as well.” Juggling his briefcase, overnight bag, and overcoat, he climbed aboard the first-class carriage and found his seat, stowing his bags and settling by the window. As the train finally pulled away, he waved to Jack, who’d remained on the platform, and Jack waved back, standing there until the last carriage was out of sight before turning away and heading back to where he’d parked the SUV.
Starting the engine, Jack flicked the radio on to listen to the news as he drove back to the Hub. As usual, most of it was bad, and the weather forecast was no better; the tail end of a tropical storm was passing over the south of England. Patchy rain was predicted for Wales, which was more or less normal for the time of year, but London was already bearing the brunt of the weather system, with torrential rain predicted to last for most of the day. Jack couldn’t help but wince. Poor Ianto. It was bad enough that his lover had to spend a whole day being bored silly by UNIT without having to endure miserable weather into the bargain.
Back at the Hub, Jack strode up to his office and shrugged out of his greatcoat, but as he made to hang it on the coat stand, he stopped dead, staring in horror. Ianto’s umbrella was still hanging there! He was going to arrive in London in the middle of a torrential downpour, with no umbrella! He’d drown!
There was only one thing for it. Pulling his coat back on, Jack snatched the umbrella off the rack, fetched the flask Ianto had left in his drawer, and was on his way to the door when a thought occurred to him. Hurrying back to his desk, he grabbed a couple of files at random, tucked them inside his coat, and dashed out into the Hub.
“Owen? You’re in charge until I get back.”
“What? Where’re you goin’?”
“I have to get to London; I should be back sometime this afternoon.” Without giving Owen a chance to ask any more questions, Jack hurried to the SUV, jumped in, threw umbrella and flask onto the passenger seat, gunned the engine, and tore out of the underground garage as though the hounds of Hell were nipping at his heels.
Heading out of Cardiff towards the Severn Bridge, Jack flicked on the SUV’s flashing blue lights and tore through the traffic, putting a hurried call through to Kathy Swanson for assistance. At his request, she contacted the tollbooths, arranging for them to let him straight through as they would any emergency vehicle. He couldn’t afford to be held up in any way; he absolutely had to get to Paddington Station before Ianto’s train did, no matter what it took.
It was a wild drive, weaving through traffic on the M4, lights flashing to warn other drivers to get out of his way. He’d expected the hardest part of the journey to be negotiating the traffic in the city, but again Detective Inspector Swanson came to his rescue; she’d called ahead so that a police escort was waiting for him, two motorcycle cops who cleared traffic out of his way, their sirens wailing as he followed in their wake.
Jack knew he was probably going to be in big trouble when Kathy found out the reason for his mad dash, but he didn’t care; the rain was battering down and the streets were awash, looking more like rivers than roads, the drains unable to cope with the sheer volume of water pouring from the sky. Already over the radio he was hearing reports of localised flooding in various parts of the city. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a mission of mercy, saving his Ianto from a fate worse than death.
Screeching to a halt outside the station, a tidal wave or rainwater flying out from under his wheels, Jack cut the engine, grabbed everything up off the passenger seat and practically threw himself out of the SUV, slamming the door behind him and covering the distance between the curb and the station entrance in three huge strides before disappearing through the door. He could only hope he was in time to catch Ianto.
Much to his relief, he was, but only because the bad weather was causing serious delays on all lines. The journey by train usually took a little over two hours; Jack had made it by car in just under two and a half, but he hadn’t even set out until fifteen minutes after Ianto’s train departed.
Fighting through the crowds of travellers surging past him on their way to the taxi rank, Jack spotted the familiar figure of Ianto coming through one of the doors that led to the platforms. Immediately he started to wave frantically, trying to get his lover’s attention.
“Ianto! Over here!”
Following the crowds trudging towards the exit, Ianto pulled the collar of his coat up for whatever small protection it might afford him against the pouring rain, reflecting that if he hadn’t let Jack persuade him to stay in bed another half hour this morning when he really should have been getting up and making sure he had everything he might need, then he probably wouldn’t have come out without his umbrella.
When he heard someone calling his name, in a very familiar American accent, he actually started to wonder if he’d dozed off on the train and was dreaming. He’d left Jack in Cardiff not much more than two and a half hours ago; he couldn’t possibly be here in London, not unless there were two of him, which was a scary thought. One of Jack was quite enough, thank you very much! Two would probably cause the universe to implode. Nevertheless, when the voice shouted again, Ianto turned in the direction it was coming from, craning his neck to see over the crowds, and there was Jack, hair and coat beaded with water, a huge smile on his face, and waving something very familiar over his head.
Repeating the words, “Excuse me, please,” over and over, Ianto squeezed through the crowds to the little island of space that had formed around the crazy American in the big coat. Ianto couldn’t blame people for giving Jack a wide berth; if he wasn’t careful, he was liable to put someone’s eye out.
“Jack? What on earth are you doing here? You’re supposed to be back in Cardiff!”
“I know, but then I heard the weather forecast and I realised you’d forgotten your umbrella, and I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting all wet, so I decided I’d better bring it to you.” Jack thrust the umbrella he’d been waving into Ianto’s hands. “Here you go!”
Ianto looked at the umbrella, bemused. “You drove over a hundred and fifty miles just to bring me my umbrella so I don’t get wet?” Jack nodded, beaming at him, obviously proud of his heroic feat, and Ianto shook his head. “I honestly don’t know whether that’s the most thoughtful thing you’ve ever done for me, or the most insane, but thank you.” He leaned in to kiss Jack lightly on the lips. “I had visions of arriving at the hotel looking like a drowned rat, and I didn’t bring a spare suit. I wasn’t expecting to need one, what with going home again first thing in the morning. How did you manage to get here so fast though?”
“Um, I called Kathy and told her I was on my way to London and needed to get there as fast as possible, so she made some calls to ensure I wouldn’t get pulled over for speeding.” At Ianto’s raised eyebrow, Jack added, “I might’ve exaggerated slightly and told her it was a matter of life or death…”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Jack…”
“Have you even seen the rain out there? It’s a deluge, you could catch your death of cold if you get wet,” Jack reasoned. “Besides, I grabbed these on my way out.” He opened the front of his coat to reveal several files tucked inside where they wouldn’t get wet. “I can say that I forgot to give you some vital and highly confidential files you needed for your meeting with UNIT, so I had to bring them to you in person.”
“So you’re not only certifiable, you’re also fiendishly sneaky, which I suppose I already knew.” Ianto was caught between exasperated amusement and reluctant admiration at Jack’s barefaced cheek.
“Yep!” Jack grinned proudly. “I’m not just a pretty face. Ex-conman, remember? I know how to cover my ass.”
“Of course you do. Only you would come up with such a crazy scheme. Better give me those ‘important’ files and I’ll put them in my briefcase.”
Jack shook his head. “Not here, too many people around. I’ll give them to you in the SUV, and then I can drive you to your hotel.”
“Good thinking; wouldn’t want anyone seeing anything they shouldn’t,” Ianto agreed. After all, he might as well play along if it would keep Jack from getting into serious trouble over his misuse of police resources, and besides, trying to find a taxi in this weather would be a nightmare. “Shall we go?”
Jack nodded, taking Ianto’s elbow. “This way.”
“Where did you park?”
“Right out front. I should probably dismiss my police escort.”
Ianto’s jaw dropped. “You had an escort?”
“Only through the city,” Jack explained with a shrug. “You know how bad the traffic can be.”
Falling into step beside Jack, Ianto put his umbrella up as they stepped out into the rain and hurried over to the SUV. He climbed into the front passenger seat while Jack borrowed the umbrella and had a quick word with the two motorcycle police. After thanking them and sending them back to their regular duties, he joined Ianto in the car and handed him the files from inside his coat. Ianto flipped through them.
“A paper on Weevil courtship displays, the autopsy results on that blobby thing from last week, and Tosh’s report on the weird device Gwen found that makes anything made of wood turn into glass? Not exactly of earthshaking importance.”
“Well, you don’t have to show them to anyone. Just shove them into the bottom of your briefcase; if anyone asks you can always say I gave you the wrong files before you left so I had to bring you the right ones.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”
“I hope so. I had plenty of time to think on the drive.”
“Fine,” Ianto sighed, doing as he was told and putting the files away, turning to set the briefcase on the backseat. He leant back in his seat and put his seatbelt on, quirking an eyebrow at Jack. “Flemings Mayfair Hotel, if you’d be so kind, driver.”
Jack’s eyebrows went up; he and Ianto had stayed there the previous year on a weekend break and had found it very comfortable. “Wow! UNIT actually booked you into a decent hotel for once?”
“Of course not,” Ianto snorted, amused. “They’re way too stingy. I wasn’t about to spend a night in one of the cheap rooming houses they favour, so I booked my accommodations myself.”
“That’s my Ianto, always organised.”
“Yes,” Ianto agreed dryly. “I’m so perfectly organised I forgot my umbrella on the wettest day of the year so far and you had to do a mercy dash to bring it to me.”
“That was probably my fault,” Jack admitted.
“Well, I’m glad we can at least agree on that,” Ianto said with a smirk, then turned serious. “Though I have to admit you’ve more than made up for it.” He relaxed, staring through the windscreen at the pouring rain as Jack steered the SUV out into slow-moving traffic and turned in the direction of the hotel. “What will you do after you drop me off?”
“Head back to Cardiff, I suppose; I left Owen in charge, so I should get back to the Hub as soon as possible.”
“Ah, yes, that would probably be wise.”
They fell into a companionable silence as Jack concentrated on driving. Outside, the rain continued to fall, making the roads seem even more like rivers, the water already over an inch deep in most places. Inside the big, black vehicle, its occupants remained safe and dry. Ianto smiled; the rest of the day would no doubt prove less than enjoyable but it hardly mattered. Right now, he felt warm and cared for. Who but Jack would make a two-and-a-half-hour drive in horrendous weather just to deliver a forgotten umbrella?
It must be love.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Kathy Swanson, Others.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada
Summary: Ianto is travelling to London for meetings with UNIT, but he’s forgotten something essential.
Word Count: 2399
Written For: My genprompt_bingo square ‘Water’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
“Call me when you get there?” Jack asked, as Ianto prepared to board the train for London and another tedious round of meetings with UNIT to ‘share information’. “Just so I know you arrived safely.”
“You’re such a worrywart at times,” Into replied with a smile. “But yes, I will call you when I get to London, or would you prefer I wait until I’m at the hotel?” Because the meetings would no doubt run late into the evening, he’d be staying in the capital overnight and catching the train back in the morning.
“Call from the station. You can call me again from your hotel room later,” Jack said with a wink and a leer. “I’m sure we’ll be able to think of something to talk about then.”
“Of course we will.” Ianto rolled his eyes affectionately. “I already know how that conversation will go. I’d better get aboard before the train leaves without me.”
Catching Ianto’s hand before he could turn away, Jack pulled him close for a lingering kiss. “Miss you already. See you tomorrow, and have a safe trip. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Right, anything goes then,” Ianto teased. “Try not to make too much of a mess while I’m gone. Oh, almost forgot to tell you, I left you a flask of coffee in your bottom desk drawer, where Owen won’t find it. Should be enough to last you most of the day. The others will have to get theirs from the coffee shop.”
Jack fairly beamed at his lover’s thoughtfulness. “You think of everything! Whatever did I do to deserve you?”
“I have no idea,” Ianto said, completely deadpan. “It’s a mystery to me as well.” Juggling his briefcase, overnight bag, and overcoat, he climbed aboard the first-class carriage and found his seat, stowing his bags and settling by the window. As the train finally pulled away, he waved to Jack, who’d remained on the platform, and Jack waved back, standing there until the last carriage was out of sight before turning away and heading back to where he’d parked the SUV.
Starting the engine, Jack flicked the radio on to listen to the news as he drove back to the Hub. As usual, most of it was bad, and the weather forecast was no better; the tail end of a tropical storm was passing over the south of England. Patchy rain was predicted for Wales, which was more or less normal for the time of year, but London was already bearing the brunt of the weather system, with torrential rain predicted to last for most of the day. Jack couldn’t help but wince. Poor Ianto. It was bad enough that his lover had to spend a whole day being bored silly by UNIT without having to endure miserable weather into the bargain.
Back at the Hub, Jack strode up to his office and shrugged out of his greatcoat, but as he made to hang it on the coat stand, he stopped dead, staring in horror. Ianto’s umbrella was still hanging there! He was going to arrive in London in the middle of a torrential downpour, with no umbrella! He’d drown!
There was only one thing for it. Pulling his coat back on, Jack snatched the umbrella off the rack, fetched the flask Ianto had left in his drawer, and was on his way to the door when a thought occurred to him. Hurrying back to his desk, he grabbed a couple of files at random, tucked them inside his coat, and dashed out into the Hub.
“Owen? You’re in charge until I get back.”
“What? Where’re you goin’?”
“I have to get to London; I should be back sometime this afternoon.” Without giving Owen a chance to ask any more questions, Jack hurried to the SUV, jumped in, threw umbrella and flask onto the passenger seat, gunned the engine, and tore out of the underground garage as though the hounds of Hell were nipping at his heels.
Heading out of Cardiff towards the Severn Bridge, Jack flicked on the SUV’s flashing blue lights and tore through the traffic, putting a hurried call through to Kathy Swanson for assistance. At his request, she contacted the tollbooths, arranging for them to let him straight through as they would any emergency vehicle. He couldn’t afford to be held up in any way; he absolutely had to get to Paddington Station before Ianto’s train did, no matter what it took.
It was a wild drive, weaving through traffic on the M4, lights flashing to warn other drivers to get out of his way. He’d expected the hardest part of the journey to be negotiating the traffic in the city, but again Detective Inspector Swanson came to his rescue; she’d called ahead so that a police escort was waiting for him, two motorcycle cops who cleared traffic out of his way, their sirens wailing as he followed in their wake.
Jack knew he was probably going to be in big trouble when Kathy found out the reason for his mad dash, but he didn’t care; the rain was battering down and the streets were awash, looking more like rivers than roads, the drains unable to cope with the sheer volume of water pouring from the sky. Already over the radio he was hearing reports of localised flooding in various parts of the city. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a mission of mercy, saving his Ianto from a fate worse than death.
Screeching to a halt outside the station, a tidal wave or rainwater flying out from under his wheels, Jack cut the engine, grabbed everything up off the passenger seat and practically threw himself out of the SUV, slamming the door behind him and covering the distance between the curb and the station entrance in three huge strides before disappearing through the door. He could only hope he was in time to catch Ianto.
Much to his relief, he was, but only because the bad weather was causing serious delays on all lines. The journey by train usually took a little over two hours; Jack had made it by car in just under two and a half, but he hadn’t even set out until fifteen minutes after Ianto’s train departed.
Fighting through the crowds of travellers surging past him on their way to the taxi rank, Jack spotted the familiar figure of Ianto coming through one of the doors that led to the platforms. Immediately he started to wave frantically, trying to get his lover’s attention.
“Ianto! Over here!”
Following the crowds trudging towards the exit, Ianto pulled the collar of his coat up for whatever small protection it might afford him against the pouring rain, reflecting that if he hadn’t let Jack persuade him to stay in bed another half hour this morning when he really should have been getting up and making sure he had everything he might need, then he probably wouldn’t have come out without his umbrella.
When he heard someone calling his name, in a very familiar American accent, he actually started to wonder if he’d dozed off on the train and was dreaming. He’d left Jack in Cardiff not much more than two and a half hours ago; he couldn’t possibly be here in London, not unless there were two of him, which was a scary thought. One of Jack was quite enough, thank you very much! Two would probably cause the universe to implode. Nevertheless, when the voice shouted again, Ianto turned in the direction it was coming from, craning his neck to see over the crowds, and there was Jack, hair and coat beaded with water, a huge smile on his face, and waving something very familiar over his head.
Repeating the words, “Excuse me, please,” over and over, Ianto squeezed through the crowds to the little island of space that had formed around the crazy American in the big coat. Ianto couldn’t blame people for giving Jack a wide berth; if he wasn’t careful, he was liable to put someone’s eye out.
“Jack? What on earth are you doing here? You’re supposed to be back in Cardiff!”
“I know, but then I heard the weather forecast and I realised you’d forgotten your umbrella, and I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting all wet, so I decided I’d better bring it to you.” Jack thrust the umbrella he’d been waving into Ianto’s hands. “Here you go!”
Ianto looked at the umbrella, bemused. “You drove over a hundred and fifty miles just to bring me my umbrella so I don’t get wet?” Jack nodded, beaming at him, obviously proud of his heroic feat, and Ianto shook his head. “I honestly don’t know whether that’s the most thoughtful thing you’ve ever done for me, or the most insane, but thank you.” He leaned in to kiss Jack lightly on the lips. “I had visions of arriving at the hotel looking like a drowned rat, and I didn’t bring a spare suit. I wasn’t expecting to need one, what with going home again first thing in the morning. How did you manage to get here so fast though?”
“Um, I called Kathy and told her I was on my way to London and needed to get there as fast as possible, so she made some calls to ensure I wouldn’t get pulled over for speeding.” At Ianto’s raised eyebrow, Jack added, “I might’ve exaggerated slightly and told her it was a matter of life or death…”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Jack…”
“Have you even seen the rain out there? It’s a deluge, you could catch your death of cold if you get wet,” Jack reasoned. “Besides, I grabbed these on my way out.” He opened the front of his coat to reveal several files tucked inside where they wouldn’t get wet. “I can say that I forgot to give you some vital and highly confidential files you needed for your meeting with UNIT, so I had to bring them to you in person.”
“So you’re not only certifiable, you’re also fiendishly sneaky, which I suppose I already knew.” Ianto was caught between exasperated amusement and reluctant admiration at Jack’s barefaced cheek.
“Yep!” Jack grinned proudly. “I’m not just a pretty face. Ex-conman, remember? I know how to cover my ass.”
“Of course you do. Only you would come up with such a crazy scheme. Better give me those ‘important’ files and I’ll put them in my briefcase.”
Jack shook his head. “Not here, too many people around. I’ll give them to you in the SUV, and then I can drive you to your hotel.”
“Good thinking; wouldn’t want anyone seeing anything they shouldn’t,” Ianto agreed. After all, he might as well play along if it would keep Jack from getting into serious trouble over his misuse of police resources, and besides, trying to find a taxi in this weather would be a nightmare. “Shall we go?”
Jack nodded, taking Ianto’s elbow. “This way.”
“Where did you park?”
“Right out front. I should probably dismiss my police escort.”
Ianto’s jaw dropped. “You had an escort?”
“Only through the city,” Jack explained with a shrug. “You know how bad the traffic can be.”
Falling into step beside Jack, Ianto put his umbrella up as they stepped out into the rain and hurried over to the SUV. He climbed into the front passenger seat while Jack borrowed the umbrella and had a quick word with the two motorcycle police. After thanking them and sending them back to their regular duties, he joined Ianto in the car and handed him the files from inside his coat. Ianto flipped through them.
“A paper on Weevil courtship displays, the autopsy results on that blobby thing from last week, and Tosh’s report on the weird device Gwen found that makes anything made of wood turn into glass? Not exactly of earthshaking importance.”
“Well, you don’t have to show them to anyone. Just shove them into the bottom of your briefcase; if anyone asks you can always say I gave you the wrong files before you left so I had to bring you the right ones.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”
“I hope so. I had plenty of time to think on the drive.”
“Fine,” Ianto sighed, doing as he was told and putting the files away, turning to set the briefcase on the backseat. He leant back in his seat and put his seatbelt on, quirking an eyebrow at Jack. “Flemings Mayfair Hotel, if you’d be so kind, driver.”
Jack’s eyebrows went up; he and Ianto had stayed there the previous year on a weekend break and had found it very comfortable. “Wow! UNIT actually booked you into a decent hotel for once?”
“Of course not,” Ianto snorted, amused. “They’re way too stingy. I wasn’t about to spend a night in one of the cheap rooming houses they favour, so I booked my accommodations myself.”
“That’s my Ianto, always organised.”
“Yes,” Ianto agreed dryly. “I’m so perfectly organised I forgot my umbrella on the wettest day of the year so far and you had to do a mercy dash to bring it to me.”
“That was probably my fault,” Jack admitted.
“Well, I’m glad we can at least agree on that,” Ianto said with a smirk, then turned serious. “Though I have to admit you’ve more than made up for it.” He relaxed, staring through the windscreen at the pouring rain as Jack steered the SUV out into slow-moving traffic and turned in the direction of the hotel. “What will you do after you drop me off?”
“Head back to Cardiff, I suppose; I left Owen in charge, so I should get back to the Hub as soon as possible.”
“Ah, yes, that would probably be wise.”
They fell into a companionable silence as Jack concentrated on driving. Outside, the rain continued to fall, making the roads seem even more like rivers, the water already over an inch deep in most places. Inside the big, black vehicle, its occupants remained safe and dry. Ianto smiled; the rest of the day would no doubt prove less than enjoyable but it hardly mattered. Right now, he felt warm and cared for. Who but Jack would make a two-and-a-half-hour drive in horrendous weather just to deliver a forgotten umbrella?
It must be love.
The End