Ficlet: Better Than Nothing
Title: Better Than Nothing
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Owen, Ianto, Tosh, Jack, Gwen.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Torchwood has to work in all weathers, but sometimes the weather defeats even them.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 278: Shelter at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
For everyone who worked at Torchwood Three, it was a fulltime job. There were no regular office hours, no weekends; the team couldn’t even count on public holidays. Someone had to work Christmas Day and over the New Year, because neither the Rift nor Cardiff’s Weevil population took any notice of the date.
Day or night, it was all the same. Whenever anything weird happened in or around the city, Jack and his little band had to be ready to deal with it, whatever the weather. So here they were, in the middle of a downpour, doing their best to deal.
“Light showers my foot!” Owen snarled, water running out of his hair and down the back of his neck, inside his leather jacket, soaking his sweatshirt. “I checked the forecast online; it said mostly dry with a few light showers! This isn’t a shower!”
“Close to the Rift, the weather gets a bit unpredictable,” Ianto said mildly, wiping rain out of his eyes with his free hand and squinting at the screen of his Torchwood issue scanner, trying to see through the gloom. It was barely dusk, but the clouds overhead were so black it might as well have been night.
“We’re not going to find anything in this.” Tosh pulled the drawstrings of her hood tighter, trying to keep the rain out. “We should find somewhere to shelter until the rain eases up.”
“Tosh is right,” Jack agreed. “Normally, I wouldn’t let a bit of rain stop us, but even with our torches on we can barely see our noses in front of our faces. Before it got so dark, I spotted a building of some sort over that way.” He pointed off to his right.
“Anything’s better than wandering around a bloody field in a monsoon,” Owen muttered, setting off in the direction Jack was pointing.
The rest of the team shambled after him, slipping on the wet, muddy grass. After a bit of searching, they found a ramshackle barn tucked against a hedge. There was no door, just a gap in the wall that the gusting wind occasionally blew the rain through, and there were a few holes in the roof, but it was probably the only available shelter near enough to do the team any good, although ‘available’ was a relative term since it was already occupied.
“Sheep!” The disgust in Owen’s voice went up another notch.
“We’re in the Welsh countryside,” Ianto pointed out. “What were you expecting, zebras?” He strode into the barn, pushing his way between woolly bodies, heading for the rear of the building where bales of straw were stacked behind a barrier.
Jack and the two women followed, leaving Owen scurrying to catch up.
“It’s not the Hilton, but it’ll do,” Jack said, helping Tosh over the barrier. “Better than being out in the storm. We can continue our search when it eases up.”
Owen slumped onto a straw bale. “With our luck we’ll be stuck here all bloody night!”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Owen, Ianto, Tosh, Jack, Gwen.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Torchwood has to work in all weathers, but sometimes the weather defeats even them.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 278: Shelter at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
For everyone who worked at Torchwood Three, it was a fulltime job. There were no regular office hours, no weekends; the team couldn’t even count on public holidays. Someone had to work Christmas Day and over the New Year, because neither the Rift nor Cardiff’s Weevil population took any notice of the date.
Day or night, it was all the same. Whenever anything weird happened in or around the city, Jack and his little band had to be ready to deal with it, whatever the weather. So here they were, in the middle of a downpour, doing their best to deal.
“Light showers my foot!” Owen snarled, water running out of his hair and down the back of his neck, inside his leather jacket, soaking his sweatshirt. “I checked the forecast online; it said mostly dry with a few light showers! This isn’t a shower!”
“Close to the Rift, the weather gets a bit unpredictable,” Ianto said mildly, wiping rain out of his eyes with his free hand and squinting at the screen of his Torchwood issue scanner, trying to see through the gloom. It was barely dusk, but the clouds overhead were so black it might as well have been night.
“We’re not going to find anything in this.” Tosh pulled the drawstrings of her hood tighter, trying to keep the rain out. “We should find somewhere to shelter until the rain eases up.”
“Tosh is right,” Jack agreed. “Normally, I wouldn’t let a bit of rain stop us, but even with our torches on we can barely see our noses in front of our faces. Before it got so dark, I spotted a building of some sort over that way.” He pointed off to his right.
“Anything’s better than wandering around a bloody field in a monsoon,” Owen muttered, setting off in the direction Jack was pointing.
The rest of the team shambled after him, slipping on the wet, muddy grass. After a bit of searching, they found a ramshackle barn tucked against a hedge. There was no door, just a gap in the wall that the gusting wind occasionally blew the rain through, and there were a few holes in the roof, but it was probably the only available shelter near enough to do the team any good, although ‘available’ was a relative term since it was already occupied.
“Sheep!” The disgust in Owen’s voice went up another notch.
“We’re in the Welsh countryside,” Ianto pointed out. “What were you expecting, zebras?” He strode into the barn, pushing his way between woolly bodies, heading for the rear of the building where bales of straw were stacked behind a barrier.
Jack and the two women followed, leaving Owen scurrying to catch up.
“It’s not the Hilton, but it’ll do,” Jack said, helping Tosh over the barrier. “Better than being out in the storm. We can continue our search when it eases up.”
Owen slumped onto a straw bale. “With our luck we’ll be stuck here all bloody night!”
The End