Fic: Green And Growing
Title: Green And Growing
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1095
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack is surprisingly enthusiastic about the Welsh scenery.
Written For: Prompt ‘Any, Any, greenery,’ at spring_renewal.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Standing by the side of the road, gazing out across the fields, Jack breathed deeply, filling his lungs with the scent of growing things. And manure, but he did his best to ignore that; it was an unfortunate but unavoidable by-product of the green and growing things that gave Wales such a pleasantly verdant landscape.
He drew in another breath, feeling relaxed and happy. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this.”
Ianto raised an incredulous eyebrow. “What, the farmyard aromas?”
Glancing towards his lover, Jack flashed his famous megawatt grin. “A bit pungent, aren’t they? No, I meant the greenery. Grass, hedgerows, bushes, trees, so many different shades of green, and it’s everywhere, even in the city! Parks and lawns, flowerbeds and window boxes, even weeds growing through cracks in the pavement. It’s all so…” He waved his arms as he searched for the right word. “Alive!”
“That would be because of all the rain we get.” A light drizzle was falling, hardly more than a dampness in the air at present, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t get heavy enough to soak them if they stood around waiting for too long. “It makes things grow.”
“It’s glorious, even the rain.”
“Glorious?” Ianto studied the scenery. “Yes, I suppose it is, if you like green. Which I gather you do.”
“You gather right. Where I grew up, everything was in shades of brown: Bare earth, sand, rocks, even our everyday clothing. There was very little native greenery, and growing crops took a lot of work. It didn’t rain very often, but when it did it was so heavy there was a danger of the good topsoil being washed away, so the areas we used for our crops had to be surrounded with dykes. That meant when the rains came, the fields were at risk of flooding.”
“So preventing one problem just led to another,” Ianto observed.
“In a way, but it was dealt with by draining the excess water into underground tanks to be used for irrigation during the dry season, which lasted most of the year. We needed to save as much water as we could. Despite being on the coast, water was our most precious commodity. If the rains didn’t come and our water supplies were running low, we had to use desalinated seawater, which came with a whole lot of other problems. The machinery we used for purifying it often broke down, and spare parts were hard to come by.”
“It sounds like a hard life.” Ianto leaned his back against the black bulk of the SUV, ignoring the dampness. Jack so seldom opened up about his early life that even risking getting drenched would be a small price to pay.
“It was, but it wasn’t all bad. We had the ocean practically on our doorstep, beaches that stretched further than the eye could see, sunshine almost all the time, cloudless skies, and fresh breezes off the water. It was a good place to grow up. All of us kids got to run wild when we weren’t in lessons or doing chores, exploring, swimming, chasing each other along the beach or the tops of the dykes. We were expected to help the adults, as soon as we were old enough, but we had a lot of freedom. Way more than kids get now.”
“There’re a lot of dangers these days,” Ianto pointed out mildly. “More than when I was growing up. Too many strangers around, too much traffic.”
“The more advanced civilisation becomes, the more things there are that can kill the unwary,” Jack agreed.
“You’d think that civilisation would make people better, but it seems to be having the opposite effect.”
“Growing pains.” Jack wandered over to join his lover, hands deep in the pockets of his greatcoat. “People will get better, more psychologically stable, as the human race evolves; this is just an era of uncertainty, and reactions to worry and stress can be unpredictable.”
“Are you saying that by the fifty-first century everyone’s well-adjusted?” Ianto found that difficult to believe.
“Hardly. But treatments are better, psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies can be detected and corrected in early childhood. People are more open-minded, less afraid of those who’re different. Everyone is accepted just the way they are.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It is. When I was a kid, the only things I had to be afraid of were a few creatures that were toxic to humans, and sudden changes in the weather. We didn’t get a lot of storms, but the ones we did get came on suddenly and could be lethal. Hurricanes, flash-flooding, tidal surges, gales that caused widespread devastation… We’d huddle in watertight bunkers, waiting out the worst of it, wondering if anything would be left of the settlement by the time the storm passed. Somehow it was always still there when we surfaced, a bit battered but mostly intact. Everything on Boeshane was built to last. It had to be.”
“Do you miss it?”
Jack nodded. “Sometimes I do, and maybe I’ll even get back there someday, just to visit, see if the colony still exists, but this is my home now. On days like this, when I stop and look around me at the sheer abundance of life, everything green and growing, I can’t help thinking how lucky I am that I get to enjoy so much unspoiled beauty.” Smiling, he swept one arm out, indicating their surroundings. “How can anyone not feel happy in the middle of all this?”
“Sometimes I forget just how beautiful Wales is. I start taking it for granted,” Ianto admitted. “I shouldn’t need you to remind me to appreciate it.” Then he sighed. “Sadly, we’re not out here to enjoy the beauty of nature. Somewhere in that green expanse is something alien, courtesy of the Rift. We should probably get on with finding it, preferably before one of the locals does.”
“Locals? All that’s out here besides us are sheep.”
“My point exactly.” Ianto smiled wryly. “They’re so much a part of the landscape it can be easy to overlook them, but they don’t stay conveniently in one place. They move around.”
“Mm. I can just see Owen’s face if we have to take a sheep back with us because it ate what we’re looking for.” Jack smirked at the thought.
“I don’t fancy getting arrested for sheep rustling, thank you very much.” Pulling his scanner from his pocket, Ianto started towards the gate. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s not green, because if it is, we might never find it.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1095
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack is surprisingly enthusiastic about the Welsh scenery.
Written For: Prompt ‘Any, Any, greenery,’ at spring_renewal.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Standing by the side of the road, gazing out across the fields, Jack breathed deeply, filling his lungs with the scent of growing things. And manure, but he did his best to ignore that; it was an unfortunate but unavoidable by-product of the green and growing things that gave Wales such a pleasantly verdant landscape.
He drew in another breath, feeling relaxed and happy. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this.”
Ianto raised an incredulous eyebrow. “What, the farmyard aromas?”
Glancing towards his lover, Jack flashed his famous megawatt grin. “A bit pungent, aren’t they? No, I meant the greenery. Grass, hedgerows, bushes, trees, so many different shades of green, and it’s everywhere, even in the city! Parks and lawns, flowerbeds and window boxes, even weeds growing through cracks in the pavement. It’s all so…” He waved his arms as he searched for the right word. “Alive!”
“That would be because of all the rain we get.” A light drizzle was falling, hardly more than a dampness in the air at present, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t get heavy enough to soak them if they stood around waiting for too long. “It makes things grow.”
“It’s glorious, even the rain.”
“Glorious?” Ianto studied the scenery. “Yes, I suppose it is, if you like green. Which I gather you do.”
“You gather right. Where I grew up, everything was in shades of brown: Bare earth, sand, rocks, even our everyday clothing. There was very little native greenery, and growing crops took a lot of work. It didn’t rain very often, but when it did it was so heavy there was a danger of the good topsoil being washed away, so the areas we used for our crops had to be surrounded with dykes. That meant when the rains came, the fields were at risk of flooding.”
“So preventing one problem just led to another,” Ianto observed.
“In a way, but it was dealt with by draining the excess water into underground tanks to be used for irrigation during the dry season, which lasted most of the year. We needed to save as much water as we could. Despite being on the coast, water was our most precious commodity. If the rains didn’t come and our water supplies were running low, we had to use desalinated seawater, which came with a whole lot of other problems. The machinery we used for purifying it often broke down, and spare parts were hard to come by.”
“It sounds like a hard life.” Ianto leaned his back against the black bulk of the SUV, ignoring the dampness. Jack so seldom opened up about his early life that even risking getting drenched would be a small price to pay.
“It was, but it wasn’t all bad. We had the ocean practically on our doorstep, beaches that stretched further than the eye could see, sunshine almost all the time, cloudless skies, and fresh breezes off the water. It was a good place to grow up. All of us kids got to run wild when we weren’t in lessons or doing chores, exploring, swimming, chasing each other along the beach or the tops of the dykes. We were expected to help the adults, as soon as we were old enough, but we had a lot of freedom. Way more than kids get now.”
“There’re a lot of dangers these days,” Ianto pointed out mildly. “More than when I was growing up. Too many strangers around, too much traffic.”
“The more advanced civilisation becomes, the more things there are that can kill the unwary,” Jack agreed.
“You’d think that civilisation would make people better, but it seems to be having the opposite effect.”
“Growing pains.” Jack wandered over to join his lover, hands deep in the pockets of his greatcoat. “People will get better, more psychologically stable, as the human race evolves; this is just an era of uncertainty, and reactions to worry and stress can be unpredictable.”
“Are you saying that by the fifty-first century everyone’s well-adjusted?” Ianto found that difficult to believe.
“Hardly. But treatments are better, psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies can be detected and corrected in early childhood. People are more open-minded, less afraid of those who’re different. Everyone is accepted just the way they are.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It is. When I was a kid, the only things I had to be afraid of were a few creatures that were toxic to humans, and sudden changes in the weather. We didn’t get a lot of storms, but the ones we did get came on suddenly and could be lethal. Hurricanes, flash-flooding, tidal surges, gales that caused widespread devastation… We’d huddle in watertight bunkers, waiting out the worst of it, wondering if anything would be left of the settlement by the time the storm passed. Somehow it was always still there when we surfaced, a bit battered but mostly intact. Everything on Boeshane was built to last. It had to be.”
“Do you miss it?”
Jack nodded. “Sometimes I do, and maybe I’ll even get back there someday, just to visit, see if the colony still exists, but this is my home now. On days like this, when I stop and look around me at the sheer abundance of life, everything green and growing, I can’t help thinking how lucky I am that I get to enjoy so much unspoiled beauty.” Smiling, he swept one arm out, indicating their surroundings. “How can anyone not feel happy in the middle of all this?”
“Sometimes I forget just how beautiful Wales is. I start taking it for granted,” Ianto admitted. “I shouldn’t need you to remind me to appreciate it.” Then he sighed. “Sadly, we’re not out here to enjoy the beauty of nature. Somewhere in that green expanse is something alien, courtesy of the Rift. We should probably get on with finding it, preferably before one of the locals does.”
“Locals? All that’s out here besides us are sheep.”
“My point exactly.” Ianto smiled wryly. “They’re so much a part of the landscape it can be easy to overlook them, but they don’t stay conveniently in one place. They move around.”
“Mm. I can just see Owen’s face if we have to take a sheep back with us because it ate what we’re looking for.” Jack smirked at the thought.
“I don’t fancy getting arrested for sheep rustling, thank you very much.” Pulling his scanner from his pocket, Ianto started towards the gate. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s not green, because if it is, we might never find it.”
The End