Veritas [fic]
Title: Veritas
Author: shadowbyrd
Rating(s): R
Pairing(s): Jack/Tosh romantic and friendship
Summary: Twenty truths about Jack and Tosh, in no particular order.
A/N: Contains references to the flavour Laligin wrote for me, Cup of Coffee and an Ice Cream, which you can find here. Thanks also to her for the help with this fic.
i.
Sometimes Jack thinks (and some days Jack knows) that he’s the simplest relationship Tosh has in the Hub.
First there’s Owen, who she loves and inevitably hates because, come on - it’s Owen. Owen who, for all his idiosyncratic genius, hasn’t quite twigged that Tosh is a girl with girl parts and quite likes him in that way really, and will never twig that Tosh is a girl with a girl’s love heart shaped dreams (Jack finds this a bit stupid, all the more so given how smart Tosh usually is), which is just as well, really, because if he does he may never go near her again.
Then there’s Gwen. Gwen who’s nice and sweet and kind and who instantly became friends with Tosh, but doesn’t find her half as interesting as she does Owen and so downgrades the friendship to indulge her interest. They smile and wave to each other but most of the time neither really has anything to say.
And last, but by no means least, there’s Ianto. There’s a strong bond there, but Jack has no idea what exactly it is, whether it’s platonic and they take turns in playing the older sibling (they’re both so over protective of each other - it’s kinda cute really) or whether there’s the possibility for something a little more carnal, yet cotton candy sweet. He has no clue. He doubts they’ve one between them either.
ii.
The Doctor has been mentioned between them once and only once.
It was Thursday night, Tosh was just a little bit smashed (never, much adored reader, try to drink an ex-Time Agent under the table) and as she rested her head on the counter top, practically kissing the surface, she mentioned that she met him once. She talked about his battered leather jacket and his hands and his nose and his ears and his eyes and that indefinable something that he has.
She forgot the next morning and some nights when she’s leaving and some Thursdays when she’s a little bit tipsy Jack thinks about asking her to tell him more.
He never does.
iii.
When he first had Tosh transferred from UNIT she used to wear a lot of black.
Someone had probably told her five years ago she looked good in black, probably one of the few compliments she got appearance-wise, and it has probably been stuck at the back of her mind ever since.
It’s one of those things, like when Ianto first arrived and wouldn’t stop calling him “Sir” every damned sentence - one of life’s little annoyances which get tiresome after a while.
Finally one day he told her to try stepping out into the world of colour (she didn’t need to start out with orange or red necessarily; maybe dark blue to help ease her out of her comfort zone) or else he’d drag her out shopping on their next day off. It was either that or be really over dramatic and tell her that there’d been a lot of deaths in the family when he was young (that was true) and that all that black reminded him of funerals (that was most certainly not true). She’s incredibly easy to guilt for someone who’s still dragging so much innocence around behind her like a cuddly stuffed tiger.
iv.
Tosh doesn’t approve of Jack and Ianto as a couple.
It comes as something as a surprise to Jack, though he knows her better than that, when she suddenly stomps into his office, slams her hands onto his desk and demands what the hell he thinks he’s playing at.
She can make so much noise for such a small person.
She’s worried about Ianto. She knows Jack far too well - which, thinking about it, is probably why, aside from an odd night of company here and there she’s never gotten tangled up with him that way - to just assume that Ianto’s in safe hands and so assumes instead her mantle as big sister and takes Jack aside for a “quiet word”, just to let him know that if he does leave Ianto heartbroken she will do unspeakable things to him, and if he wants to make that into an innuendo she can start right now by cutting out his tongue.
“Isn’t there a danger that I might fire you? On grounds of assault?”
“Who else are you going to get to sing “A few of my favourite things” to the organic computer when it gets depressed?”
“Fair point.”
v.
Jack doesn’t approve of Tosh’s relationship with Kathy Swanson.
It’s dangerous to get too involved with policemen (police persons, whatever) because then they start probing you about your work and then you have to break up with them or retcon them or have them get killed in an accident. More trouble than they’re worth in the end. Jack should know - he’s gone through it enough times. He told himself never again after Henderson.
Hell, it’s dangerous to be involved with anyone when you’re at Torchwood’s beck and call. Either they get killed or the long hours kill the relationship.
Not forgetting that Kathy doesn’t exactly think very much of the rest of them, which makes going out for drinks a bit awkward.
And has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Jack couldn’t charm her first.
No, really.
vi.
When she looked into his mind Jack saw something of Toshiko’s.
Kind of like looking in a mirror that isn’t a mirror.
Jack hasn’t told her and never will.
vii.
What he doesn’t know is that she already knows.
viii.
Jack nearly killed Tosh once.
She doesn’t remember enough of it to understand what happened and Jack has done his very best to forget about it.
He never quite manages, though.
He still remembers hunting that Weevil which was a bit more human looking than usual (because, as it turned out, it was a human, morphing slowly, ever so slowly into a Weevil), remembers it being so dark he could only just make out the shape of his hand in front of his face and then seeing something moving a few feet away, the echoes of the footsteps drowning out the original noise, remembers shooting it and Tosh screaming. He remembers shooting the Weevil that came at the smell of her blood - but it couldn’t be Tosh’s blood, not really, because he’d told her to wait outside in case it doubled back and she wouldn’t disobey him, not unless something had happened - remembers scooping her up in a panic to get her somewhere safe. Remembers kissing her and that beautiful gold glow sinking beneath her skin and
pulling her wound shut. He remembers getting rid of her coat and using one of the dead Weevil’s claws to fake a scratch on her back.
He remembers it all a little too well.
ix.
Tosh has beaten Jack at every Pokemon related game they’ve played.
It’s all because of that bloody Mew of hers…
x.
Jack thinks Tosh would make a good parent.
He told her as much once. Tosh just cocked her head and said, “Is that your subtle, poetic way of telling me that you weren’t wearing a condom?”
Yeah. Jack doesn’t have a good sense of timing when it comes to social situations.
xi.
Jack doesn’t scare her.
More, there are times when he unsettles her. Knows things, acts a certain way…it’s almost unquantifiable, but has such a strong presence. And very now and again he’ll catch her thinking it over, quirk a mocking eyebrow and smile pityingly, saying it plainly, so clearly she almost answers him before she realises he’s not actually spoken aloud.
Stuck? Shall I give you a hint?
xii.
Had they been stuck in 1941 for good Jack would have asked Tosh to marry him, even though he knows she’d have said “no”.
xiii.
Tosh celebrates some of her more spectacular breakthroughs with Jack in a thoroughly geeky fashion.
When there’s no one else around, of course. Really wouldn’t do for everyone to see their esteemed leader breaking down into girlish squeals of delight and amazement over the 2480s’ version of the Rubik’s cube. It would ruin the whole merciless gun-slinger thing he’s trying to project.
xiv.
In her first week at Torchwood Three Tosh failed her firearm assessment (narrowly - by two points, if that), and in addition to the practice sessions Jack gave her a self-defence whistle.
“You need us, you just blow on that.”
The only reason she didn’t try to ram it down his throat - aside from her being polite and very interested in keeping this job - was because she was trying to work out if there was some kind of innuendo. She’d heard a lot of stories.
xv.
Jack quite likes having shouting matches with Tosh.
It’s liberating to just let loose and yell at someone, all the better when they give as good as they get. Jack is of the opinion that a little conflict is healthy for a relationship, however platonic.
xvi.
Every now and then, whenever Jack’s been having ice cream, Tosh receives a half empty ice cream carton of chocolate chips and chunks, or blobs of cookie dough.
Jack makes excuses about his “girlish figure”, but in some ways he’s very particular about his foods. Ice cream of one flavour, none of this two or five in one flavour madness; no bits of anything in the ice cream (whether he actually likes it on its own or not); only white cheese on pizzas, only orange cheese in sandwiches; no apples after one o’clock in the afternoon (there is apparently an explanation for this one, though Jack considers it lengthy and boring and can’t be persuaded to tell them it) and no pulp in orange juice. Pulp in apple juice is okay, but not orange.
He can make for a horrendous dinner party guest.
xvii.
Tosh doesn’t disapprove of Jack’s “emergency” driving (sharp corners, speeding and blaring the horn when driving down a quiet road) as much as she lets on.
Provided she’s given enough time to brace herself it’s actually kind of fun.
xviii.
Tosh is the Pokemon Master of the Hub, but when it comes to Tetris Jack reigns supreme.
He’s been honing his skills since it was first released and no one at Torchwood has managed to beat him yet. That time Owen and Tosh tried to gang up on him just ended in disaster.
xix.
Tosh met Jack twice before she actually met him.
Well, once before she actually met him, then once more after. When she was four she was at a fair with her family and lost the stuffed rabbit her cousin Rei had won her. She cried and cried and wouldn’t let them try and win her another one; it wouldn’t have the same wonky left ear, the eyes would be a different colour and the fur wouldn’t feel as soft.
Her mother was starting to get exasperated with her, telling her to stop being silly, when someone in a battered bomber jacket appeared, holding out her rabbit and saying something about it being left in the café, but Tosh didn’t hear him; she snatched her rabbit back and hugged her hard as if to say I’ll never lose you again and then hugged the stranger. The adults laughed and her rabbit’s saviour patted her on the head, wished them a good night and disappeared again. Toshiko was too wrapped up in her rabbit to care.
Then there was that case out of Cardiff, when Jack had left her in charge of the Hub. She’d have felt a little more proud if he’d actually left someone else besides her for her to be in charge of. Feeling fed up, she’d gone for a walk around the bay, only to spot - and receive a bone crushing hug from - the Doctor himself.
And you tell me not to flirt with everyone I meet!
And there was Jack. Not her Jack; he was happier and brighter and actually dressing the part well enough to fit in to the early twenty-first century.
She’s only brought either matter up once, to demand a long overdue (vanilla) ice cream.
xx.
Once, as comeuppance for a drunken bet he made with the head of Torchwood Two, Glasgow, Jack got turned into a cat, during which time he stayed with Tosh.
He got to drink lots of milk, sit in the sun all day and curl up on the duvet at night, provided he kept to his assigned side…
Not that he misses any of it.
Well, maybe he kinda misses being scratched behind the ears. That was nice.
He’s not saying anything, though. Not while he’s human(ish).
That would just be weird.