fic: Walking on Thin Ice 5/5 [PG-13] Torchwood/Highlander crossover
Title: Walking on Thin Ice
Author: Aeron Lanart
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Team, OFC, (Methos)
Rating: PG-13 (some colourful language, bit of angst, and mention of a m/m/m relationship)
Warnings/Spoilers: Warnings; see rating. Spoilers; Season 1 Torchwood up to Out of Time
Summary: There are Issues that need to be dealt with...
Disclaimer: Aunty Beeb and RTD own Torchwood.
Panzer/Davis Productions own this concept of immortality, and Methos.
Siannon O'Niall however is mine.
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made
Written for my occhallenge table, which is here. Prompt: Winter.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part 5
~*~
Siannon woke to the wind veritably howling around the hotel, accompanied by the smash of horizontal rain against the window. She shuddered, it would be beyond foul outside; the wind would render any attempt at using an umbrella dangerous and would drive the rain straight through any normal coat. She found herself rather glad she didn’t have a normal coat, and then remembered Ianto who not only didn’t have a coat like hers but didn’t have a car either. She checked her watch, it was 6am; she was sure Ianto wouldn’t mind being woken a little early when he saw the violence of what was masquerading as weather outside his window.
An hour later, the wind had dropped slightly, allowing the rain to fall more or less vertically. Ianto still managed to get soaked by just dashing from his front door to Siannon’s car and gasped a breathless thank you as she shoved a towel in his face to help him dry off. They were both warm and fairly dry by the time she pulled her car into a small underground car park that she hadn’t realised existed until Ianto directed her there. She pulled into the space that Ianto indicated, that was marked ‘contract only parking’. The only other car in the car park was one she didn’t recognise. She shot a questioning glance at Ianto.
“You aren’t going to tell me you’ve got a whole damn car park that you’ve been keeping secret now, are you?” Ianto shook his head, smiling gently.
“Torchwood had a hand in building it, but it’s not exclusively ours; the Senedd gets the use of that bit.” He waved at the other side of the car park where the other car was parked. “We get a percentage of the contract fees though, comes in handy.” He dug around in an inside pocket for a moment before producing a car pass, Siannon could barely make out the tiny Torchwood ‘T’ logo in one corner next to a barcode. “Put this in your windscreen and then we can get out of here.”
“So how do you propose we get out of here and through the tourist office without getting pulverised by the rain?” She asked as they walked across the car park.
“We don’t.” He stopped before an unremarkable door marked ‘private’ which had a combination lock. He tapped in the number and opened it, stepping aside to let Siannon in first. “Private entrance. This way eventually connects up with the entrance from the Torchwood garage.”
“Eventually?” She queried, not sure she liked the sound of that.
“Eventually.” Ianto confirmed with a hint of a smirk.
After the third locked door and second flight of stairs, Siannon realised that Ianto really hadn’t been kidding. They came to a fourth door, and she thankfully recognised the corridor on the other side.
“Thank fuck for that!” She let out with a whoosh of breath. Beside her, Ianto chuckled.
“Now you know why we don’t really use it that much, though it beats going outside when the weather is trying to wash the city into the Bay.”
“Too bloody right it does, but I’m perishing for a coffee now.”
“I think I can do something about that...”
“Have I told you recently how much I love you, Ianto?” She said, and hooked her arm through his as they made their way up to the hub proper.
“You’re only after me for one thing.” He said, trying to sound hurt and failing. She grinned at him.
“Damn straight. With chocolate sprinkles...”
Later, with her hands wrapped around a cup of heaven with chocolate sprinkles Siannon watched Ianto making Jack’s first industrial strength coffee of the day. She realised he was whistling under his breath while he went through the ritual.
“You sound better,” she commented. He threw a quick smile over his shoulder before continuing with what he was doing.
“Weather notwithstanding; I feel better. It’s a relief.” He straightened, turning round to face her.
“I bet it is.” She indicated the coffee in Ianto’s hand “Do you want me to take that down or...?”
“No, I’ll take it. I need to talk to Jack before everyone else gets here. We both have some explaining to do and now I feel more able to manage my side I’d rather not leave it.” He met her eyes, and she gave him the merest hint of a nod.
“I understand. Yell if you need me.”
“I won’t, but thanks anyway.” Ianto grinned at her, and turned towards the stairs.
“Bugger off then,” Siannon said cheerfully. “I’ll phone when the others start arriving if you haven’t surfaced...” She sent him on his way with a gentle push between his shoulders and a not so gentle slap to his bottom, musing as she watched him descend to the main level that Jack was right about the suits. Resolutely she quashed any further thoughts that threatened to travel in that direction and dug around in the cupboard for everyone else’s favourite mugs before going to check on Myfanwy. By the time she’d finished Ianto was back in the kitchen area, fiddling with the coffee machine. She made her way down to beg another drink off him.
“Will you and Jack be ok now?” She asked as she approached.
“I think so. Whatever you did for him, thank you.” He smiled at her, hands still busy on the machine.
“You should thank yourself, Ianto. I couldn’t have done anything if you hadn’t asked me down here after all. I just knocked some sense into his thick skull.” The sound of the cog door and the entrance alarm interrupted her. She watched Owen stalk through the door, not looking left or right, not acknowledging anyone. She sighed. “I wish I could do more.” Ianto joined her at the railing.
“I’m not sure anyone can help Owen, except Owen.”
“Maybe not, but he seems so brittle...” She paused for a moment, watching Owen’s silent progress toward the autopsy bay. “...and brittle things tend to shatter.” Ianto didn’t answer, just turned back to his coffee machine, wordlessly picked up Owen’s drink, and took it downstairs to him; the silent massage coming through to her loud and clear - Torchwood would deal with Owen as best they could, no matter what their personal feelings in the matter and she would just have to leave them to it. Siannon had done all she could to help her friends, perhaps it was time to let them help themselves; even with that acknowledged, she found herself reluctant to leave. She decided to give herself another day, two at the most, in Cardiff and then she would have to go back to what passed as a normal life for her.
For the rest of the day she kept unobtrusively in the background. More often than not that meant giving Ianto a hand in the archives as they’d not bothered opening the tourist office because of the weather. She’d only approached Owen once, when delivering coffee and before she’d even opened her mouth he’d said.
“Don’t. Just... don’t.” She left him in peace, even though it cut her up to leave him in such pain without even attempting to do something about it. She knew it was impossible to help someone who wasn’t ready *to* be helped, but it confirmed that her decision to leave sooner rather than later was the correct one.
Thankfully the weather had calmed down somewhat by the time she was ready to leave the hub and Siannon only had to contend with wet streets and rain rather than having to fight to keep her car on the road as it was buffeted by a howling gale, but Ianto still accepted the offer of a lift home.
“So, same time tomorrow?” Siannon asked. Ianto shook his head, smiling brightly.
“No need. I’m picking up my new car tomorrow so I’m heading out that way before I go to work.”
“Does this mean we can come and drool over it?”
“Only if you clean up after yourselves. And no sticky fingerprints on the paintwork either.” Ianto admonished. She chuckled.
“I’ll make sure to tell Jack. Though knowing him, fingerprints would be the least of the problem...” She trailed off, looking sideways at Ianto, waiting for his reaction. She wasn’t disappointed with his spluttered reply.
“Siannon!”
“It’s true.” She was grinning now, unable to help herself. She enjoyed getting Ianto flustered and it wasn’t that easy.
“Maybe it is. But...” Ianto swallowed the rest of the sentence and began to fiddle with the catch on his seatbelt, avoiding Siannon’s gaze. She tried not to chuckle.
“Sorry Ianto. I shouldn’t tease, but it’s worth it just to see your face matching your shirt.”
“I’ll get you back.” Seatbelt undone he did meet her eyes, underneath the humour she could see he meant every word.
“I’m sure you will.” She replied, hoping that when he did it wouldn’t be too embarrassing; Ianto still had access to the Watcher database after all.
“Thanks for the lift, Siannon.”
“No problem. See you tomorrow.” The car door slammed behind him and he waved at her as he ran down the path to his front door in an effort to avoid the worst of the rain. She waited until he was inside before pulling away and heading back to her hotel, hoping that the weather would improve before she left Cardiff.
The sky the next morning was that threatening flat shade of grey that promises snow, but never seems to deliver. Siannon was just glad the wind had dropped, especially when everyone except Owen trooped outside to ogle Ianto’s new car. They didn’t stay outside for long as it was too cold to stand around, and Jack amazed them all by behaving himself. It was a slow day for Torchwood, and Siannon ended up back in the archives for much of it helping Ianto with some of the filing and keeping well away from the artefacts. When she emerged Gwen and Owen had already left and Toshiko was typing away furiously on her computer, oblivious to the rest of the Hub.
“Coffee?” Ianto called down from his spot by the boardroom.
“Please,” she replied and headed up toward him. “So what does Jack think of the new car then?”
“He likes it.” Ianto ducked his head in an effort to hide the flush on his cheeks. “Especially the back window; said it might come in useful...”
“The window? What’s so special about the sodding window?” Siannon was puzzled to say the least.
“It’s concave rather than convex.” Ianto replied matter-of-factly, though he was still blushing.
“So it’s a bit different. But I still don’t get...” she stopped as something clicked in her head as to just why a concave rear window on a saloon style car might be useful. “He never?” She gaped at Ianto. “In this weather? Outside? Dagda’s Balls!” Ianto burst out laughing.
“Not even Jack is that crazy. But he did make a few suggestions.”
“I’m sure he did.” She leaned against the railing, fanning cheeks that were inexplicably flaming. Ianto chuckled.
“I’ll let you take Tosh’s coffee then, shall I? Unless you’d prefer to take Jack his of course?”
“No. No, I’ll take Tosh’s. It’s fine.” The sound of Ianto’s laughter drifted up to her as he made his way down the stairs. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she caught him whispering something that sounded suspiciously like ‘payback’. She smiled to herself, typical of Ianto not to be beyond embarrassing himself in order to get to her. She picked up the other coffees and headed to Tosh’s work station.
Tosh absently thanked her for the coffee but carried on doing whatever it was that engrossed her so much. Siannon finished her coffee, and when there was no sign of either Jack or Ianto emerging from the office she began to tidy up.
“There! Done.” Tosh eventually pushed herself away from her desk, and smiled at Siannon. “Time to go I think.” Siannon wandered over to the work station and checked her watch.
“Bloody hell, didn’t realise it was so late. What’s the weather doing out there now?” Tosh brought up the current CCTV footage on one of her screens. They both stared at it.
“That wasn’t forecast.” Tosh said as the Plass appeared onscreen shrouded under a blanket of snow.
“No it wasn’t. Isn’t it great!” Siannon couldn’t help the enthusiasm that coloured the tone of her voice.
“It’s snow.”
“Yeah. And do you know how rare it is to get a decent snowfall in Western coastal areas now? That actually sticks?”
“I hadn’t thought about it.” Toshiko replied vaguely. Siannon was already scrambling into her coat.
“Come on Tosh, let’s grab Jack and Ianto.” Siannon dashed into Jack’s office, glad that the door hadn’t been closed; hopefully she wouldn’t be interrupting anything. Two pairs of blue eyes turned in her direction as she barrelled through the door.
“What’s the emergency?” Jack asked, smiling.
“Have you seen the CCTV for up there?” She indicated the Plass above them. Ianto immediately flicked the screen on Jack’s computer over to the CCTV feed and shifted out of the way so Jack could see it. Identical grins lit their faces.
“We’ll use the lift,” said Jack, rolling down his sleeves as Ianto went to gather their coats.
The snow had almost stopped by the time they reached the surface, carpeting the entire Plass and the surrounding area, twinkling under the street lights. She grinned at Jack; for some reason the first proper snow of the season had always been a magical thing for her, and it touched something deep within her to see Jack reacting in a similar way. She threw the first snowball, hitting Jack squarely on the back of his head and was rewarded by being pelted by all three of the others. Soon there was nothing but the sound of laughter and the echo of muffled shrieks across the Plass as one or another of them managed to score a particularly direct hit with a snowball. Eventually they had to stop; fingers, toes and faces were becoming numb with cold despite the smiles and laughter. Siannon carefully brushed the snow off her coat.
“That was fun. Couldn’t think of a better way to say goodbye,” she said with a smile.
“You’re leaving?” Jack sounded surprised.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“And you weren’t going to say goodbye.” Ianto didn’t sound surprised in the least.
“Don’t need to.” She said, squeezing Ianto’s shoulder. “You know I’ll be in touch, and anyway you know where I am if you need me. Take care of yourselves.” She kissed both men on the cheek and offered an arm to Tosh. “Walk you back to your car?” Tosh accepted the arm with a breathless giggle.
“I’m sure I’d manage, but thanks anyway.” Arm in arm she and Tosh crunched through the snow as they made their way to where the cars were parked. The snow touched everything with an air of mystery making Cardiff look magical rather than mundane; it was a beautiful sight. For a second Siannon thought she felt something, a ghost of presence whispering along her nerves. She stopped in her tracks, but it had gone... if it had ever been there.
“What’s wrong?” Tosh asked. Siannon shook her head to clear it and glanced over her shoulder; Jack was leading Ianto back up to the invisible lift while trying to kiss him at the same time. She smiled to herself; life was good, or at least a hell of a lot better than it had been 2 days ago.
“Nothing’s wrong, Tosh. Nothing at all.”
End
Author: Aeron Lanart
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Team, OFC, (Methos)
Rating: PG-13 (some colourful language, bit of angst, and mention of a m/m/m relationship)
Warnings/Spoilers: Warnings; see rating. Spoilers; Season 1 Torchwood up to Out of Time
Summary: There are Issues that need to be dealt with...
Disclaimer: Aunty Beeb and RTD own Torchwood.
Panzer/Davis Productions own this concept of immortality, and Methos.
Siannon O'Niall however is mine.
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made
Written for my occhallenge table, which is here. Prompt: Winter.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part 5
~*~
Siannon woke to the wind veritably howling around the hotel, accompanied by the smash of horizontal rain against the window. She shuddered, it would be beyond foul outside; the wind would render any attempt at using an umbrella dangerous and would drive the rain straight through any normal coat. She found herself rather glad she didn’t have a normal coat, and then remembered Ianto who not only didn’t have a coat like hers but didn’t have a car either. She checked her watch, it was 6am; she was sure Ianto wouldn’t mind being woken a little early when he saw the violence of what was masquerading as weather outside his window.
An hour later, the wind had dropped slightly, allowing the rain to fall more or less vertically. Ianto still managed to get soaked by just dashing from his front door to Siannon’s car and gasped a breathless thank you as she shoved a towel in his face to help him dry off. They were both warm and fairly dry by the time she pulled her car into a small underground car park that she hadn’t realised existed until Ianto directed her there. She pulled into the space that Ianto indicated, that was marked ‘contract only parking’. The only other car in the car park was one she didn’t recognise. She shot a questioning glance at Ianto.
“You aren’t going to tell me you’ve got a whole damn car park that you’ve been keeping secret now, are you?” Ianto shook his head, smiling gently.
“Torchwood had a hand in building it, but it’s not exclusively ours; the Senedd gets the use of that bit.” He waved at the other side of the car park where the other car was parked. “We get a percentage of the contract fees though, comes in handy.” He dug around in an inside pocket for a moment before producing a car pass, Siannon could barely make out the tiny Torchwood ‘T’ logo in one corner next to a barcode. “Put this in your windscreen and then we can get out of here.”
“So how do you propose we get out of here and through the tourist office without getting pulverised by the rain?” She asked as they walked across the car park.
“We don’t.” He stopped before an unremarkable door marked ‘private’ which had a combination lock. He tapped in the number and opened it, stepping aside to let Siannon in first. “Private entrance. This way eventually connects up with the entrance from the Torchwood garage.”
“Eventually?” She queried, not sure she liked the sound of that.
“Eventually.” Ianto confirmed with a hint of a smirk.
After the third locked door and second flight of stairs, Siannon realised that Ianto really hadn’t been kidding. They came to a fourth door, and she thankfully recognised the corridor on the other side.
“Thank fuck for that!” She let out with a whoosh of breath. Beside her, Ianto chuckled.
“Now you know why we don’t really use it that much, though it beats going outside when the weather is trying to wash the city into the Bay.”
“Too bloody right it does, but I’m perishing for a coffee now.”
“I think I can do something about that...”
“Have I told you recently how much I love you, Ianto?” She said, and hooked her arm through his as they made their way up to the hub proper.
“You’re only after me for one thing.” He said, trying to sound hurt and failing. She grinned at him.
“Damn straight. With chocolate sprinkles...”
Later, with her hands wrapped around a cup of heaven with chocolate sprinkles Siannon watched Ianto making Jack’s first industrial strength coffee of the day. She realised he was whistling under his breath while he went through the ritual.
“You sound better,” she commented. He threw a quick smile over his shoulder before continuing with what he was doing.
“Weather notwithstanding; I feel better. It’s a relief.” He straightened, turning round to face her.
“I bet it is.” She indicated the coffee in Ianto’s hand “Do you want me to take that down or...?”
“No, I’ll take it. I need to talk to Jack before everyone else gets here. We both have some explaining to do and now I feel more able to manage my side I’d rather not leave it.” He met her eyes, and she gave him the merest hint of a nod.
“I understand. Yell if you need me.”
“I won’t, but thanks anyway.” Ianto grinned at her, and turned towards the stairs.
“Bugger off then,” Siannon said cheerfully. “I’ll phone when the others start arriving if you haven’t surfaced...” She sent him on his way with a gentle push between his shoulders and a not so gentle slap to his bottom, musing as she watched him descend to the main level that Jack was right about the suits. Resolutely she quashed any further thoughts that threatened to travel in that direction and dug around in the cupboard for everyone else’s favourite mugs before going to check on Myfanwy. By the time she’d finished Ianto was back in the kitchen area, fiddling with the coffee machine. She made her way down to beg another drink off him.
“Will you and Jack be ok now?” She asked as she approached.
“I think so. Whatever you did for him, thank you.” He smiled at her, hands still busy on the machine.
“You should thank yourself, Ianto. I couldn’t have done anything if you hadn’t asked me down here after all. I just knocked some sense into his thick skull.” The sound of the cog door and the entrance alarm interrupted her. She watched Owen stalk through the door, not looking left or right, not acknowledging anyone. She sighed. “I wish I could do more.” Ianto joined her at the railing.
“I’m not sure anyone can help Owen, except Owen.”
“Maybe not, but he seems so brittle...” She paused for a moment, watching Owen’s silent progress toward the autopsy bay. “...and brittle things tend to shatter.” Ianto didn’t answer, just turned back to his coffee machine, wordlessly picked up Owen’s drink, and took it downstairs to him; the silent massage coming through to her loud and clear - Torchwood would deal with Owen as best they could, no matter what their personal feelings in the matter and she would just have to leave them to it. Siannon had done all she could to help her friends, perhaps it was time to let them help themselves; even with that acknowledged, she found herself reluctant to leave. She decided to give herself another day, two at the most, in Cardiff and then she would have to go back to what passed as a normal life for her.
For the rest of the day she kept unobtrusively in the background. More often than not that meant giving Ianto a hand in the archives as they’d not bothered opening the tourist office because of the weather. She’d only approached Owen once, when delivering coffee and before she’d even opened her mouth he’d said.
“Don’t. Just... don’t.” She left him in peace, even though it cut her up to leave him in such pain without even attempting to do something about it. She knew it was impossible to help someone who wasn’t ready *to* be helped, but it confirmed that her decision to leave sooner rather than later was the correct one.
Thankfully the weather had calmed down somewhat by the time she was ready to leave the hub and Siannon only had to contend with wet streets and rain rather than having to fight to keep her car on the road as it was buffeted by a howling gale, but Ianto still accepted the offer of a lift home.
“So, same time tomorrow?” Siannon asked. Ianto shook his head, smiling brightly.
“No need. I’m picking up my new car tomorrow so I’m heading out that way before I go to work.”
“Does this mean we can come and drool over it?”
“Only if you clean up after yourselves. And no sticky fingerprints on the paintwork either.” Ianto admonished. She chuckled.
“I’ll make sure to tell Jack. Though knowing him, fingerprints would be the least of the problem...” She trailed off, looking sideways at Ianto, waiting for his reaction. She wasn’t disappointed with his spluttered reply.
“Siannon!”
“It’s true.” She was grinning now, unable to help herself. She enjoyed getting Ianto flustered and it wasn’t that easy.
“Maybe it is. But...” Ianto swallowed the rest of the sentence and began to fiddle with the catch on his seatbelt, avoiding Siannon’s gaze. She tried not to chuckle.
“Sorry Ianto. I shouldn’t tease, but it’s worth it just to see your face matching your shirt.”
“I’ll get you back.” Seatbelt undone he did meet her eyes, underneath the humour she could see he meant every word.
“I’m sure you will.” She replied, hoping that when he did it wouldn’t be too embarrassing; Ianto still had access to the Watcher database after all.
“Thanks for the lift, Siannon.”
“No problem. See you tomorrow.” The car door slammed behind him and he waved at her as he ran down the path to his front door in an effort to avoid the worst of the rain. She waited until he was inside before pulling away and heading back to her hotel, hoping that the weather would improve before she left Cardiff.
The sky the next morning was that threatening flat shade of grey that promises snow, but never seems to deliver. Siannon was just glad the wind had dropped, especially when everyone except Owen trooped outside to ogle Ianto’s new car. They didn’t stay outside for long as it was too cold to stand around, and Jack amazed them all by behaving himself. It was a slow day for Torchwood, and Siannon ended up back in the archives for much of it helping Ianto with some of the filing and keeping well away from the artefacts. When she emerged Gwen and Owen had already left and Toshiko was typing away furiously on her computer, oblivious to the rest of the Hub.
“Coffee?” Ianto called down from his spot by the boardroom.
“Please,” she replied and headed up toward him. “So what does Jack think of the new car then?”
“He likes it.” Ianto ducked his head in an effort to hide the flush on his cheeks. “Especially the back window; said it might come in useful...”
“The window? What’s so special about the sodding window?” Siannon was puzzled to say the least.
“It’s concave rather than convex.” Ianto replied matter-of-factly, though he was still blushing.
“So it’s a bit different. But I still don’t get...” she stopped as something clicked in her head as to just why a concave rear window on a saloon style car might be useful. “He never?” She gaped at Ianto. “In this weather? Outside? Dagda’s Balls!” Ianto burst out laughing.
“Not even Jack is that crazy. But he did make a few suggestions.”
“I’m sure he did.” She leaned against the railing, fanning cheeks that were inexplicably flaming. Ianto chuckled.
“I’ll let you take Tosh’s coffee then, shall I? Unless you’d prefer to take Jack his of course?”
“No. No, I’ll take Tosh’s. It’s fine.” The sound of Ianto’s laughter drifted up to her as he made his way down the stairs. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she caught him whispering something that sounded suspiciously like ‘payback’. She smiled to herself, typical of Ianto not to be beyond embarrassing himself in order to get to her. She picked up the other coffees and headed to Tosh’s work station.
Tosh absently thanked her for the coffee but carried on doing whatever it was that engrossed her so much. Siannon finished her coffee, and when there was no sign of either Jack or Ianto emerging from the office she began to tidy up.
“There! Done.” Tosh eventually pushed herself away from her desk, and smiled at Siannon. “Time to go I think.” Siannon wandered over to the work station and checked her watch.
“Bloody hell, didn’t realise it was so late. What’s the weather doing out there now?” Tosh brought up the current CCTV footage on one of her screens. They both stared at it.
“That wasn’t forecast.” Tosh said as the Plass appeared onscreen shrouded under a blanket of snow.
“No it wasn’t. Isn’t it great!” Siannon couldn’t help the enthusiasm that coloured the tone of her voice.
“It’s snow.”
“Yeah. And do you know how rare it is to get a decent snowfall in Western coastal areas now? That actually sticks?”
“I hadn’t thought about it.” Toshiko replied vaguely. Siannon was already scrambling into her coat.
“Come on Tosh, let’s grab Jack and Ianto.” Siannon dashed into Jack’s office, glad that the door hadn’t been closed; hopefully she wouldn’t be interrupting anything. Two pairs of blue eyes turned in her direction as she barrelled through the door.
“What’s the emergency?” Jack asked, smiling.
“Have you seen the CCTV for up there?” She indicated the Plass above them. Ianto immediately flicked the screen on Jack’s computer over to the CCTV feed and shifted out of the way so Jack could see it. Identical grins lit their faces.
“We’ll use the lift,” said Jack, rolling down his sleeves as Ianto went to gather their coats.
The snow had almost stopped by the time they reached the surface, carpeting the entire Plass and the surrounding area, twinkling under the street lights. She grinned at Jack; for some reason the first proper snow of the season had always been a magical thing for her, and it touched something deep within her to see Jack reacting in a similar way. She threw the first snowball, hitting Jack squarely on the back of his head and was rewarded by being pelted by all three of the others. Soon there was nothing but the sound of laughter and the echo of muffled shrieks across the Plass as one or another of them managed to score a particularly direct hit with a snowball. Eventually they had to stop; fingers, toes and faces were becoming numb with cold despite the smiles and laughter. Siannon carefully brushed the snow off her coat.
“That was fun. Couldn’t think of a better way to say goodbye,” she said with a smile.
“You’re leaving?” Jack sounded surprised.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“And you weren’t going to say goodbye.” Ianto didn’t sound surprised in the least.
“Don’t need to.” She said, squeezing Ianto’s shoulder. “You know I’ll be in touch, and anyway you know where I am if you need me. Take care of yourselves.” She kissed both men on the cheek and offered an arm to Tosh. “Walk you back to your car?” Tosh accepted the arm with a breathless giggle.
“I’m sure I’d manage, but thanks anyway.” Arm in arm she and Tosh crunched through the snow as they made their way to where the cars were parked. The snow touched everything with an air of mystery making Cardiff look magical rather than mundane; it was a beautiful sight. For a second Siannon thought she felt something, a ghost of presence whispering along her nerves. She stopped in her tracks, but it had gone... if it had ever been there.
“What’s wrong?” Tosh asked. Siannon shook her head to clear it and glanced over her shoulder; Jack was leading Ianto back up to the invisible lift while trying to kiss him at the same time. She smiled to herself; life was good, or at least a hell of a lot better than it had been 2 days ago.
“Nothing’s wrong, Tosh. Nothing at all.”
End