m_findlow

Title: More than just coffee
Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Owen, Ianto

Author: m_findlow

Rating: M (language)

Length: 1,000 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 137 - Jumping to conclusions at

fandomweekly

Summary: Owen knows far less about his teammate and what he's capable of than he realised.

Owen puffed out frustrated clouds of breath as he trekked through the park on a late night rift alert. He didn't really fancy being partnered up with Ianto, but he'd been the one on night duty and called Owen as backup so he felt obligated. None of this night shift business would have been necessary if Jack was still here.

'How much further?' Owen grumbled.

'It's a big park,' came the reply, as Ianto kept ahead of him, taking the lead, studying his PDA. 'Keep up.'

Owen thrust his hands deeper in his jacket pockets. 'You don't have to try and prove yourself to me, you know,' Owen said, earning a cold glare from his teammate over his shoulder.

'I'm not,' he replied more tersely than Owen expected. Ianto's feathers didn't get ruffled easily, not unless he was bleating about some mess one of them had made which he felt obliged to clean up.

'I'm just saying,' Owen added, putting his hands up in mock surrender. 'Just because Jack buggers off doesn't mean everyone has to suddenly be Jack.'

Ianto stopped this time and rounded on his heels. 'I'm not being Jack,' he added even more angrily.

Owen didn't let the outburst rankle him. 'No, not at all,' he muttered under his breath as Ianto began plodding onward without him, trying to leave him behind. He'd only told Owen he was coming with him to check it out, taken the keys for the SUV like he drove it all the time and had taken off as soon as they arrived, leaving Owen to trail behind him. He even had his coat hanging open in the cold, hands tucked in his pockets and collar turned up. Not like Jack at all, Owen decided. Poor sod was missing Jack like crazy and couldn't even see it manifesting itself as some desperate attempt to replicate their missing leader.
'Fine,' Owen huffed, jogging a few steps to catch up to Ianto’s longer, purposeful strides. 'You're not Jack, then. Just stop trying so hard.'

'So hard to do what?'

'This. Not like you used to do all this rift alert stuff.'

'I did stuff. You just didn't see it.'

'The odd weevil doesn't count. Trundling lost people from the fifties around the supermarket doesn't count. This isn't like Torchwood One.'

Ianto avoided looking at him as he kept walking. 'You have no idea what I did at Torchwood One.'

'Because you never bloody told us,' Owen snapped back, annoyed now. 'Bad as Jack you are with all your little secrets.'

'Maybe when I came here I just decided I needed a break from all of that.'

Owen scoffed. 'Filing and making coffee?'

'Among other things.'

'So, go on then,' Owen said, getting equally frustrated by their exchange. 'Who the fuck were you? Yvonne Hartman's personal assistant?' When Ianto kept trudging through the underbrush and didn't reply, Owen realised he'd hit paydirt. 'What, really?'

'Really. And you know she wasn't a bad person. A little zealous sometimes perhaps, but…'

'Shit.' Owen blew out a breath. Ianto really was full of bloody secrets. 'It wasn't in your files.' Owen knew because Jack had Tosh double check them all and then Owen had gotten the lowdown from her over two glasses of cheap house white.

'I removed it. Didn't think Jack would take me in otherwise.'

'Right. So you were the top shit over there?'

Ianto slowed, letting Owen keep pace alongside him. 'Not exactly. I helped handle things. Not like here, though. London's crises rarely compare with the madness here. Things would go tits up and we would handle it.' He paused. 'Until the day we couldn't.'

'You made it out.'

Ianto's expression darkened. 'I was lucky, that's all. People better than me should have survived.'

Owen decided to change tact. 'You shot me when I tried to open the rift. I thought you were just mucking about, not enough guts to go through with it.'

'It took everything I had to hold back. Why do you think I only hit your shoulder?'

Owen grunted. 'Missed all the important bits.'

'Intentionally. Why do you think everyone else found it so funny?'

Owen shrugged. 'Figured it was a fluke shot.'

'I wouldn't have fired if I thought it'd go astray. Could've killed you.'

'Could've killed me if you'd wanted to.'

'Yep,' came the reply.

Owen considered this as they fell into companionable silence, only their shoes crunching quietly through the underbrush. 'Shit,' Owen swore as they finally spotted the thing that had fallen through the rift. About the size of a small car and covered with palm-sized thorny red growths, it looked like a walking rosebush with deadly intent as it moved through the trees. If either of them got too close they'd be cut to ribbons.

'Stay here,' Ianto whispered and moved forward. Great, Owen thought, feeling a rush of panic. Teaboy was going all Jack, risking himself.

Owen grabbed his gun, ready to fire, but Ianto just walked straight up to it and it didn't attack. He motioned for Owen to join him. 'It's just an Eenmeeple. Harmless. Mostly.'

'You sure?'

'I know what I'm doing.'

'Spose you do,' Owen had to agree.

'I dealt with one of these before in London. They look really savage but they're just big softies.' He stroked it gently between the huge thorns and it purred placidly at the ministrations.

'Well, I'll be buggered. Guess that's me told.'

'Don't be too hard on yourself. If I'd never seen one of these before, I'd have thought the same. Easy to jump to conclusions when we look without actually seeing. That's why I love this job.'

'Me too,' Owen agreed. 'But just so I know, you're not going to suddenly kick my arse or anything, are you?'

Ianto smirked. 'Only if I think you deserve it.'