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m_findlowTitle: No other choice
Fandom: Torchwood (Torchwood One)
Characters: Ianto, Tommy, Pippa
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 219 - Stress at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly
Fandom: Torchwood (Torchwood One)
Characters: Ianto, Tommy, Pippa
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 219 - Stress at
fandomweeklySummary: Ianto is left in the difficult position of taking charge or doing nothing.
‘Sodding, buggering hell,’ Ianto muttered, bursting from his boss's office. ‘She's gone. Yvonne’s gone,’ he said to no one in particular.
An assistant looked up from her desk and frowned at him. ‘Gone where?’
Suddenly the office lights went out and were immediately replaced by a silent rotating red flash of emergency lighting and the distant sound of explosions. ‘Oh, that's just–’ he didn't finish the thought. As panic began to erupt around him, he pushed past her, moving down the myriad of corridors, searching for someone who might be able to help, instead running into Tommy, head of Research and Development. Tagging behind Tommy was a flustered looking Pippa from human resources.
‘What's going on?’ Pippa asked. ‘I didn’t book an emergency drill today.’
‘Yvonne’s been abducted.’ Just saying it sounded unbelievable, even for Torchwood standards. ‘One second she was there, and then… And now…’ He gestured at the flashing lights. Aliens had penetrated their defences and beamed away their leader.
‘Well, this is going splendidly,’ Tommy muttered in his usual gruff tone. ‘Thought she was meant to be negotiating a peaceful bloody treaty?’
Ianto grimaced. ‘I think they've dispensed with peace.’
‘So, who's in charge whilst everything's going tits up?’
He saw the way they looked at him. ‘Not me, if that's what you're thinking!’
‘Well, somebody has to be in charge,’ Pippa replied. In her mid-western American twang, it sounded more sarcastic than it was intended. He half expected her to add on the end that she’d read in today’s horoscope that Leos on the cusp were today going to be presented with a challenge for which they should step up. As if that wasn’t just every day for him in this job.
‘Well, it’s not me,’ Ianto replied, wondering why the two of them were still looking at him.
‘You’re Yvonne’s right hand man,’ Tommy reminded him.
‘And?’ He dared them to try and elucidate how that made him any more qualified than anyone else. Just because he knew everyone’s business because that was part of his job, didn’t mean he could do everyone’s job. On the contrary, whilst he’d had all the requisite field and weapons training, he was far from a field agent. He preferred to stay right where he was, tucked behind his laptop in administrative heaven.
Yvonne had identified in him that meticulous attention to detail and organisation that enabled him to put his finger on anything and everything that happened within the confines of Torchwood Tower. He had the kind of mind that remembered everything and forgot nothing, filing it all in some complex memory palace to be called upon later. If you needed someone to keep you abreast of all the inner machinations of a highly complex secret organisation, Ianto was your man. Leading it, however, was another matter entirely. Had she been here now, she’d have chortled in that slightly demeaning way of hers and then tutted at their lack of insight in thinking Ianto was in any way capable of stepping into her sizable, highly expensive and effortlessly classical, high heels.
‘If anyone’s going to be in charge it should be Kieran,’ he replied. He was their Head of Security, after all.
‘And where’s he, then?’ Tommy asked, folding his arms and challenging Ianto to pinpoint their next best candidate. ‘Not here. Sodding fat lot of use that is.’
‘Ssshh!’ Ianto held up a hand and they all fell silent. He could hear something. It was odd, like the sound of a child rolling a marble across a tiled floor, that rattling sound of movement. He looked up, following the sound as it moved along the roof cavity over their heads. He began to jog, trying to keep up with the sound before it finally clunked, falling through a gap in the ventilation. Out dropped a glass ball, no bigger than a tennis ball, filled with red and blue wires. Oh, God. It didn't take a genius to know that wasn't good. Without thinking he picked it up, threw it as far down the hall as he could and yelled “Everybody get down!” It exploded in a bright yellow ball of plasma, obliterating the entire section of corridor and all the rooms either side of it, knocking them flat to the ground from the shockwave.
‘Are you mental?’ Tommy cried. ‘That thing could have blown your bloody arm off!’
‘We’re under attack!’ Pippa cried.
No kidding. Clearly negotiations weren't going well. That or they'd given up the bother of negotiations at all.
‘They've killed her, haven't they?’ Pippa asked, going pale and quivering.
It scarcely mattered, did it? An offensive was underway and the only people who could do anything to stop it from escalating across the entire planet were the people inside this building. The sound of another glass bomb rolling along the passage above them filled him with icy fear. He commanded them to run. They were all going to die in here. All his friends were going to die unless he did something.
‘Tommy, where are you keeping those experimental plasma cannons?’
‘They're not even in beta testing stage yet.’
‘Can you think of a better time to start testing them then?’ he challenged.
He nodded, face grim. ‘Aye, okay. But no sodding heroics.’
Heroics? Ianto almost burst out a hysterical laugh. Who was thinking about being a hero? They just had to survive long enough to figure out how to stop the invasion. Maybe Yvonne wasn't dead yet. Maybe they just needed to buy her time. They could probably do that, if nothing else. The security detail should already be mounting some kind of defence. That was their job after all; not just to look imposing as they wandered the corridors in their black military uniforms and brandishing their guns.
He wasn't facing this fight alone and totally unarmed. It just needed someone to coordinate their efforts as best they could. Maybe he could do that much. Maybe if they didn't get killed first.
‘Sodding, buggering hell,’ Ianto muttered, bursting from his boss's office. ‘She's gone. Yvonne’s gone,’ he said to no one in particular.
An assistant looked up from her desk and frowned at him. ‘Gone where?’
Suddenly the office lights went out and were immediately replaced by a silent rotating red flash of emergency lighting and the distant sound of explosions. ‘Oh, that's just–’ he didn't finish the thought. As panic began to erupt around him, he pushed past her, moving down the myriad of corridors, searching for someone who might be able to help, instead running into Tommy, head of Research and Development. Tagging behind Tommy was a flustered looking Pippa from human resources.
‘What's going on?’ Pippa asked. ‘I didn’t book an emergency drill today.’
‘Yvonne’s been abducted.’ Just saying it sounded unbelievable, even for Torchwood standards. ‘One second she was there, and then… And now…’ He gestured at the flashing lights. Aliens had penetrated their defences and beamed away their leader.
‘Well, this is going splendidly,’ Tommy muttered in his usual gruff tone. ‘Thought she was meant to be negotiating a peaceful bloody treaty?’
Ianto grimaced. ‘I think they've dispensed with peace.’
‘So, who's in charge whilst everything's going tits up?’
He saw the way they looked at him. ‘Not me, if that's what you're thinking!’
‘Well, somebody has to be in charge,’ Pippa replied. In her mid-western American twang, it sounded more sarcastic than it was intended. He half expected her to add on the end that she’d read in today’s horoscope that Leos on the cusp were today going to be presented with a challenge for which they should step up. As if that wasn’t just every day for him in this job.
‘Well, it’s not me,’ Ianto replied, wondering why the two of them were still looking at him.
‘You’re Yvonne’s right hand man,’ Tommy reminded him.
‘And?’ He dared them to try and elucidate how that made him any more qualified than anyone else. Just because he knew everyone’s business because that was part of his job, didn’t mean he could do everyone’s job. On the contrary, whilst he’d had all the requisite field and weapons training, he was far from a field agent. He preferred to stay right where he was, tucked behind his laptop in administrative heaven.
Yvonne had identified in him that meticulous attention to detail and organisation that enabled him to put his finger on anything and everything that happened within the confines of Torchwood Tower. He had the kind of mind that remembered everything and forgot nothing, filing it all in some complex memory palace to be called upon later. If you needed someone to keep you abreast of all the inner machinations of a highly complex secret organisation, Ianto was your man. Leading it, however, was another matter entirely. Had she been here now, she’d have chortled in that slightly demeaning way of hers and then tutted at their lack of insight in thinking Ianto was in any way capable of stepping into her sizable, highly expensive and effortlessly classical, high heels.
‘If anyone’s going to be in charge it should be Kieran,’ he replied. He was their Head of Security, after all.
‘And where’s he, then?’ Tommy asked, folding his arms and challenging Ianto to pinpoint their next best candidate. ‘Not here. Sodding fat lot of use that is.’
‘Ssshh!’ Ianto held up a hand and they all fell silent. He could hear something. It was odd, like the sound of a child rolling a marble across a tiled floor, that rattling sound of movement. He looked up, following the sound as it moved along the roof cavity over their heads. He began to jog, trying to keep up with the sound before it finally clunked, falling through a gap in the ventilation. Out dropped a glass ball, no bigger than a tennis ball, filled with red and blue wires. Oh, God. It didn't take a genius to know that wasn't good. Without thinking he picked it up, threw it as far down the hall as he could and yelled “Everybody get down!” It exploded in a bright yellow ball of plasma, obliterating the entire section of corridor and all the rooms either side of it, knocking them flat to the ground from the shockwave.
‘Are you mental?’ Tommy cried. ‘That thing could have blown your bloody arm off!’
‘We’re under attack!’ Pippa cried.
No kidding. Clearly negotiations weren't going well. That or they'd given up the bother of negotiations at all.
‘They've killed her, haven't they?’ Pippa asked, going pale and quivering.
It scarcely mattered, did it? An offensive was underway and the only people who could do anything to stop it from escalating across the entire planet were the people inside this building. The sound of another glass bomb rolling along the passage above them filled him with icy fear. He commanded them to run. They were all going to die in here. All his friends were going to die unless he did something.
‘Tommy, where are you keeping those experimental plasma cannons?’
‘They're not even in beta testing stage yet.’
‘Can you think of a better time to start testing them then?’ he challenged.
He nodded, face grim. ‘Aye, okay. But no sodding heroics.’
Heroics? Ianto almost burst out a hysterical laugh. Who was thinking about being a hero? They just had to survive long enough to figure out how to stop the invasion. Maybe Yvonne wasn't dead yet. Maybe they just needed to buy her time. They could probably do that, if nothing else. The security detail should already be mounting some kind of defence. That was their job after all; not just to look imposing as they wandered the corridors in their black military uniforms and brandishing their guns.
He wasn't facing this fight alone and totally unarmed. It just needed someone to coordinate their efforts as best they could. Maybe he could do that much. Maybe if they didn't get killed first.
