Torchwood: Fanfic: Overdue

[m_findlow]

Title: Overdue
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 976 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for zdenka's prompt "any, any, too late" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack finds something he's forgotten to return

Jack had lived a long time, and whilst he was far from what you would consider a hoarder, even the most spartan immortal was bound to rack up a few possessions over the years. Most of it was tucked away in storage rooms dotted around the hub, minimizing the clutter that remained to be housed in his tiny bunker, but even so, the collection of paraphernalia that had accumulated was threatening to bury them alive any time they went down there.

In principle, Ianto didn't like to go through Jack's things, even though he knew Jack didn't share the same reservations, and would eagerly have leapt at the chance to paw through Ianto's own personal possessions. It had however reached a point where if one of them didn't do something about it, weevils would be the least of their problems.

When push came to shove, Jack was more than happy to let Ianto take charge of the entire operation. It didn't take long for Ianto, with Jack's often apathetic input, to sort the mess into boxes tagged as junk, keep personal, keep work, and undecided. The personal box was by far the smallest, and Ianto couldn't help but wonder if Jack wasn't purposefully directing items to the junk box. He knew Jack didn't like to hold on to the past, but when he wasn't looking, he slipped several items from the junk box to the undecided box, just in case Jack later regretted throwing them away.

What surprised him most was the rather large pile of books that amassed in their clean up. He wouldn't have considered Jack an avid reader, despite a small shelf of well worn favourites in the office above. Neither of them rarely had time to indulge the pleasure. As he flicked through some of them, he noticed the slips of paper attached to the inside covers with dates all over them.

'Jack, these are library books.'

Jack took one of the offered books and had a closer look. 'Caerdydd Community Library, so they are. Must've forgotten to return them.'

'The last date stamped in this one is April 22nd 1986. I think it's safe to say it's overdue.'

'I was busy,' Jack stated, defending himself.

'Obviously,' Ianto replied deadpanned. 'We really should return these.'

Jack yawned. 'Why bother? It doesn't look like anyone's missed them so far.'

Ianto gave him a look that made him feel like a villain. Damn him for being such a stickler for the rules.

The next day they piled all the books into a bag and drove down to the local library. Chances were that the library had cancelled the books long ago, and that they would end up being nothing more than a charity shop donation.

There must have been an event on at City Hall, because Jack couldn't get a park anywhere near the library, even using his usually creative parking skills.

'You go inside and I'll meet you there,' Jack suggested, aiming to find a park a few blocks further away. Ianto got out of the car, laden with his burden and made his way inside.

It must have been a while since he'd been to a public library, he thought. There were long banks of computers, and shelves full of CDs and DVDs, audio books and magazines, comfy couches and kids areas full of toys. Long gone were the dusty old drawers full of index cards and microfiche readers, map rooms and cubicles for private study. This was a library for the modern day.

He managed to find the help counter and a lady finally appeared from an office nearby. With all the computerised check out facilities, even their jobs were becoming redundant.

'Can I help you?'

'Yes, I'd like to return some overdue books.'

He unloaded them from the bag and placed them on the counter. The lady looked confused when she went to scan them and couldn't find the barcode. She resorted to manually keying in the ISBN and consulted the screen.

'It says they were last checked out to a Jack Harkness. Is that correct?'

'Yes, I'm returning them on his behalf.'

She considered him for a moment. 'Are you a relative?'

'Er, I suppose so,' he answered, taken aback by the question.

'I'm very sorry for your loss,' she apologised.

'Sorry?'

'Mr Harkness is deceased, yes? That's why you're returning the books now?'

Ianto frowned. 'What makes you say that?' It wasn't a matter of privacy, he was genuinely interested as to where her line of questions was headed.

'Well, it says he was registered here in 1912. I just assumed,' she replied awkwardly.

'Oh no,' Ianto said, relieved, 'he's still very much alive and kicking.'

'Oh,' she said, surprised. 'Well that changes everything.'

The friendly smile on Ianto's face faded. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, we don't charge late fines for deceased estate returns, but if he's still alive I'm afraid we have to impose a charge.'

'How much?'

It took her a full twenty minutes to process all the books. While he was waiting he inspected a shelf of latest releases, trying to remember if he'd heard of any of the authors.

'That will be seven thousand, eight hundred and fifty two pounds sixty,' she finally announced.

Ianto nearly fell over from shock, and Jack entered just in time to catch the colour draining from his face.

'What's wrong?'

'Uh, this is Mr Harkness's grandson,' Ianto introduced him to the attendant. 'He'll tidy up the outstanding bill,' he said, quickly making his escape.

Jack smiled congenially at the woman and pulled the docket towards him for closer inspection.

'How much?' he choked. 'Ianto! Get back here!' he yelled, forgetting where he was and receiving a stern scolding from the librarian.

'Too late,' Ianto yelled back not slowing his quick pace toward the door. 'Much like your books!'

Comments

[bk_forever]

HEEE! That'll teach Ianto not to correct people! That's one hell of a fine!

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

That it is, but it's a fair few years overdue!

I once forgot I hadn't returned a book, because it got buried under unimportant stuff on my desk and they charged sixty cents per day. In the end I paid about sixteen dollars because it was over a month late and I hadn't logged into see that it was overdue, and having deleted the reminder email by accident. I could have almost bought the book at that price!

[bk_forever]

Most libraries over her have an upper limit for how much they can charge for each over due book, but I don't know what that is these days. It would be so much per day, mounting up until the upper limit was reached, that's a really big fine you got.