Will My Arms Be Strong Enough 21/45
Title: Will My Arms Be Strong Enough? 21/45
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys...and others!
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, John Hart, two OC's, Andrea (Andie) Carlowe and Nick Jones.
Spoilers: Set after Exit Wounds.
Summary:Jack and Nick go shopping together - oh, heaven help Cardiff!
Right, here we go again! I'd just like to say thanks to Nikki - as usual - for beta-ing, and also for Amy, who gave me the idea for...well, you'll have to wait and see! Onwards!
Chapter 21
Two days until Christmas…
Jack had to admit, the Hub did look a lot brighter now that Gwen, Nick and Ianto had insisted on putting up some decorations around the place, especially the softly lit Christmas tree in the hot-house. He was, however, thankful that Ianto had insisted that they leave his office untouched. For one thing, he really didn’t like people invading his personal space when he wasn’t there, and, for another thing, it was quite nice to watch everything from his own secluded little area. He had, admittedly, allowed Ianto to fix a bunch of mistletoe over his (finally fixed) door, which did look pleasant - and meant that Ianto never had an excuse not to kiss him.
He was distracted from these happy musings by a tap on the door and, after receiving the call to come in, Nick poked his head around the door.
“Jack, we’ve got Rift activity,” he said. “Scanners are showing something small and non-sentient on the second floor of Queens Arcade.”
Jack sighed as he pulled on his coat. “Gwen, Andie, stay here!” he called, and then stopped and frowned. “Wait, John and Ianto have gone to a Weevil alert, so we haven’t got the SUV.”
“That doesn’t matter,” answered Nick, tossing his lab coat over one of the desks and slipping into his outdoor coat. “We’ll take my car. You go and wait on the Plass and I’ll drive round.”
Jack nodded and let the lift carry him back onto the Plass, where he almost fainted when he saw that it was almost ankle deep in thick snow. The SUV wouldn’t have had any trouble getting through it, but there was no way that Nick’s little Mini Cooper would manage it. Sighing, he tapped his comm. “Nick, I think we’re going to have to walk. There’s no way your car’s going to get through all this snow. Plus, it’s still falling pretty -” but he was cut off as a familiar small blue car pulled up in front of the water tower. He blinked in surprise.
Nick rolled down the window and smiled, not noticing that he was getting himself covered in snowflakes as he did so. “Never underestimate how sturdy these little cars can be,” he said, leaning over to open the door. “Now, get in, and make sure you don’t -” but he was cut off by a loud bang as Jack’s head hit the door frame. “And for the record, walking would have probably taken us twice as long.”
Jack blinked hard several times. “Why?”
“Because with the way this snow’s falling, and with the annoying habit it has of sticking to my glasses, I wouldn’t be able to see after about five steps,” answered Nick as he turned on the radio and started up the engine. He chuckled as the radio blared back into life with the opening of ‘Last Christmas’. Suddenly, he frowned. “Jack, what date is it today?”
“December twenty-third,” answered Jack, not looking up from where he was checking his wrist strap. “Only two days to go until…” but then he trailed off.
“Please tell me that pause means you’ve not finished Christmas shopping too!” Nick groaned quietly. “I knew I shouldn’t have left it until now, but I just kept getting stuck! It’s our first Christmas together, but…what on earth do you get someone you’ve only been with for a month?”
Jack chuckled. “If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what to get for Ianto,” he admitted, looking sheepish. “I mean, it’s not our first Christmas together, per se…but I guess this is our first Christmas as an official couple.”
“Okay, so, we’ll go pick up whatever it is that the Rift’s decided to spit out and then get some shopping done. How does that sound?”
“Sounds great, now let’s go!”
“You got it, Captain!”
~*~
Twenty minutes later…
“Okay, the signal says that the Rift was active at these co-ordinates about -”
“Second floor, next to New Look,” interrupted Nick who was already running for the escalator. He laughed at Jack’s dumbfounded expression. “Hey,” he said, “I’m a Jones.”
Jack rolled his eyes slightly. “You’re worse than Owen,” he said, but fondly. He received a chuckle in response as the two men made their way over to their destination, which was right outside the trendy clothes store. It didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for; a small sphere lying harmlessly outside the door, slowly turning a variety of different colours.
Jack’s eyes lit up when he saw it. “Oh, yes!” he cried out, almost laughing from glee. “Are you seeing this thing, Nick?”
“Yeah,” replied Nick, who had picked the thing up. “It looks…kind of futuristic.”
“Futuristic?” Jack laughed out loud, causing several passers-by to stare at him. “This, my friend, is from the fiftieth century, no less. No one managed to figure out its name, but it didn’t take anyone long to figure out what it does!” With a grin, he clapped his young doctor on the back.
Unfortunately, Nick was completely unprepared for this, and in his shock, he accidentally squeezed the sphere in his hand. Equally unfortunately, he wasn’t looking where he was pointing it and, almost instantly, he heard a series of loud and horrified shrieks. He looked up then, fully intending to ask Jack what on earth was going on, but before he could open his mouth, he saw, quite clearly, what had happened.
Minutes before, the area had been filled with customers, all talking and laughing and exchanging comments about the various Christmas presents they’d bought for friends and relatives. Now, the place was still packed, but the shoppers were panicking as they suddenly realised that their clothes had unexpectedly disappeared.
“Oh my God!” cried Nick, jumping back in fright. But as he did so, he stumbled and accidentally pressed the button once again, causing another group’s clothes to vanish as well. With a cry of embarrassment, he tossed the device towards a smirking Jack, who turned it around, examining it with a raised eyebrow and a truly lecherous smirk.
“What the hell is that thing?” he shrieked.
“It doesn’t really have a name,” answered Jack, who was almost choking with laughter. “But I have to admit, I like what it does.”
Nick groaned, but before he could speak, he caught sight of a handsome brunette with a very well-defined chest and piercing green eyes. “Although,” he muttered, raising one eyebrow, “I have to admit…there probably are some advantages…”
“Nick!” Jack shouted, trying to look chastising, but the twinkle in his eyes gave him away. “While I see what you mean, a bit of professionalism would be useful here.”
“Oh, right.” Nick dragged his gaze back to his leader. “What do we do?”
Jack was turning the device over in his hands. “Well, these things were perfected over time, so that, by the fifty-first century, while there wasn’t a name for them, they did at least have a reverse button. Unfortunately, I think this model is one of the first to be created, so…they hadn’t gotten to the stage of adding a reverse button to it.”
“So, we just…wait?”
Jack nodded. “We just wait…and we also just watch.” Suddenly, a naughty glint appeared in his eyes. “Well…or unless you -”
“Not the time, Jack.” Nick rubbed his eyes. “I can’t believe I did that.”
Jack, realising that, even despite the appreciation of the sights in front of them, the younger man was genuinely upset, leaned over and squeezed his arm. “Hey, look, don’t worry about it,” he said. “Everyone’s made mistakes and, let me tell you, compared to some of the ones the rest of the team have made in their early days, this one’s not that bad. It certainly wasn’t as bad as Gwen releasing an alien gas that feeds of orgasms on her first day, for instance.”
Nick gaped. “You’re joking!”
“No, I’m not. But do you see what I’m saying? Yes, you made a mistake, but everyone does. And, you know…at least nobody died,” he added comfortingly. “It’ll wear off shortly.”
“What happens then?”
“Then, we take care of the clean-up. We get this thing,” he indicated the sphere, “into your car so we can get it back to the Hub for Ianto to archive it. If anyone needs Retcon, we do that too. With something small like this, it shouldn’t take too long.”
~*~
One hour later…
“What happens when they wake up?” asked Nick, looking round at the dozing shoppers (and security guards) around the place. He had just come back from storing the sphere in the boot of his car - after making sure it was safely secured in a box first.
“They’ll go back to what they were doing,” answered Jack. “They’ll have no memories of what happened. As far as they were concerned, it was just a normal day of last minute Christmas shopping…oh, God!” He clapped a hand to his forehead. “I still haven’t got Ianto’s present.”
“What did you give him last year?” asked Nick.
“A set of silk scarves,” answered Jack with a tiny blush. “But we weren’t really an official couple last year, plus I was…well, sort of distracted; there was a lot going on. I can’t just get him something like that this year - not for our first official Christmas.”
He looked a bit helpless. “I mean, what do you do at Christmas?”
Nick took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “To be honest, Jack, we’ve usually just gotten each other something a bit silly like…oh, last year, I got him this book of card tricks and he gave me a model dragon. And one year, when we were teenagers, we both got each other sewing stuff. I suppose, being sons of a tailor, it made sense.” He shook himself. “But I’m guessing that’s not the kind of thing you’re thinking of.”
“Not really, no,” admitted Jack. “It’s so stupid; with women, you can get them bath stuff if all else fails, but…we’re difficult to buy for.”
Nick chuckled. “Yeah, and it’s quite fun in a twisted way. Well, it is until you get a boyfriend and it comes round and bites you in the ass.”
“I take it that means you don’t know what to get for John, then. Well, don’t worry - he’s easy.”
“Jack, I am not getting him something to do with sex.”
“I wasn’t going to suggest that you did. When we were together, John hated it when I did that. He likes picking those sorts of things out himself. I never figured out why.”
Nick shook his head at the enigma that was Captain John Hart. “So, what do you suggest?”
Jack held out his arm. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”
~*~
Half an hour later, they were stepping out of the little shop, when Nick suddenly stopped. “Hey, d’you mind if we just go in here for a bit? I’ve been looking for this book for ages and I just want to check if it’s arrived here.”
“Sure,” answered Jack, easily. Contrary to what some people seemed to think, he loved to read and lose himself in the pages of a book. The only pre-requisite was that it wasn’t a science-fiction book; they saw enough of that sort of thing at work.
He stopped in front of one of the shelves and cast a discerning eye over the titles, frowning at some and smiling at others as he recalled the ones that he’d read. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a title that he didn’t recall seeing before. Reaching out, he plucked it off the shelf and started thumbing through it, raising his eyebrows in contemplation as he did so.
“Huh,” he muttered. “I never knew that…or that…hmm, I wonder…”
An idea suddenly occurred to him and, after mulling it over for a few minutes, he walked up to the cash desk and, without blushing, without even taking his eyes off the pretty cashier, he handed the money over, his smooth smile firmly in place.
“It’s for my partner,” he explained. “I’m thinking that he could…learn something. I know I have.”
He tipped the girl an enormous wink and strode away, letting his coat billow behind him as he re-emerged into the swirling snow. A moment later, Nick joined him, an amused sparkle in his eye.
“You are incorrigible,” he said, but he was grinning.
“You’d have done it too.” retorted Jack, brushing a handful of snow off his coat and straight into the young man’s hair.
Nick stared at him. “Did you just throw snow into my hair?”
“Why yes, I believe I did.”
There was a short pause and then, quite calmly, he picked up a handful of snow as well. “You are so asking for it!” he cried as he dumped it straight down Jack’s neck.
Jack let out an extremely undignified shriek at the cold sensation. “Is that the proper way to treat your boss?” he asked with his eyebrow raised.
In response, Nick gave him a look that could be interpreted as repentant, were it not for the laughter in his voice. “I’m terribly sorry, Sir,” he squeaked. “I suppose you’ll just have to punish me, won’t you?”
“Oh, I will!” shouted Jack. He slipped the book into his backpack and, never once pausing, he grabbed an enormous handful of snow which he aimed at Nick’s jaw. Unfortunately, the young medic ducked at the last moment, meaning that an elderly woman directly behind him got hit full in the face instead. He started to apologise, but before he could, a handful of freezing snow hit him square in the face. Everyone around him laughed and he could just see Nick smirking at him.
“Oh, you are asking for it!” he shouted, running up to Nick and pinning him to the ground where he started to tickle him mercilessly, scattering snow over him at the same time. “You are so asking for it!”
Nick shrieked. “Jack, stop it!” he gasped, wriggling as he tried to escape from the man’s clutches. “Seriously, stop it - I can’t…I can’t breathe…you’re killing me…” but he couldn’t say any more, because he was laughing so hard.
Jack smirked. “Well, maybe you’ll think twice before you go disrespecting your -” but he was cut off as, without noticing, he found himself flat on his back in the middle of the snow-covered street, with Nick watching him and grinning wickedly, his eyes lighting up. At the same time, the former Time Agent suddenly became aware that a certain part of his lower body was becoming colder and colder by the second…and that something wet was slipping downwards.
Slowly, he sat up and managed to look down, where, to his astonishment, he saw a wet (and cold) patch slowly spreading across the front of his trousers, when it had certainly not been there before. Frowning, he looked up and found himself staring straight into Nick’s smug face.
“You didn’t,” he whispered.
“Oh, I think I did,” answered Nick, standing up and brushing snow off his jeans. “Oh, and by the way? You scream like a little girl.”
Jack leapt up and worked his mouth a few times. “You…you are just so…”
“What?” asked Nick, his eyes wide and innocent. “I’m so what?”
“You are so…” Jack stood up and looked at him, shaking his head in what the younger man soon realised was amusement. “You are so much like me, just thirty centuries too early!” He grinned and ruffled Nick’s hair affectionately, sending sprinklings of snow flying everywhere.
Nick shifted. “Stop it!” he yelped, but with a smile on his face as their fellow shoppers started to drift away from the scene, some of them talking amongst themselves, but all of them laughing quietly amongst themselves at the two grown men who were acting like children.
Jack smiled. “Smells like Christmas spirit,” he said, breathing in deeply. “And speaking of which, I still need your help finding something nice for Ianto.”
“I thought you already got him a book.”
“Yeah, I did, but…” Jack paused. “I just, I want to get him something else, you know? Something more…more personal, something I can give him in private.”
Nick paused for several minutes, a small frown creasing his forehead. Jack looked at him, almost watching the wheels turn in his head as he considered various ideas and rejected them in turn. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and a broad smile crossed his face.
“I’ve got it!” he cried, grabbing Jack’s hand. “Come with me!”
~*~
Two and a half hours later…
“I don’t know why you wanted to go round the entire shopping centre just for some boxes of crackers,” grumbled Jack as he threw his coat off.
“You were the one who wanted them in the first place!” retorted Nick, brushing yet more snow out of his hair. He smiled at Ianto. “It’s crazy out there - it’s like being in the Arctic.”
“Oh, because you’ve been to the Arctic!” replied Ianto sarcastically.
Jack chuckled. “Ianto, I need you to put this in the safe,” he said, handing him the sphere that they had picked up earlier.
“And don’t squeeze it!” spluttered Nick.
John appeared then and his eyes lit up. “Jack, is this what I think it is?”
“Yes, it is,” replied Jack, smiling. “But I think it’s one of the earlier versions that was made - it doesn’t have a reverse button.”
John frowned. “What are you talking about? Of course it has a reverse function. Look.” He indicated a small black circle on the bottom of the sphere. “Obviously, it does wear off after a while - the one we had wore off, remember?”
“What does it do?” asked Ianto, curiously. John leaned over and whispered in his ear, fighting the urge to laugh as the young Welshman turned pinker by the second. “And you pressed it, Jack?”
“I didn’t,” said Jack. “Nick did.”
“What?!” exclaimed John and Ianto at the same time.
“How did you know what it does?” asked John.
“I didn’t,” snapped Nick. “It was an accident - and I didn’t know it had a reverse button either. I mean, come on, do you really think I wanted to see all those shoppers naked?”
“Well, you were checking out that brunette,” answered Jack as Ianto snorted loudly. “And quite a few of the others too; you need to be careful, John, this one’s got a wandering eye.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Welcome to Torchwood Three,” he said dryly. “Who’s on Rift duty?”
***
Next Time: It’s finally Christmas Day! What have our heroes bought for each other?