Torchwood: Fanfic: Guardian Angel

[m_findlow]

Title: Guardian angel
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team, Nosy
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,718 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for the lovely badly_knitted for her birthday. Thanks for letting me borrow Nosy for the weekend so that a brave Fluff could save the day!
Summary: Ianto has a guardian angel in Nosy

Jack pressed gently down on Ianto's shoulders, forcing him to sit back down on the sofa.

'I thought Owen told you to rest,' Jack said, giving Ianto the eye.

'He did, but there's work to do. There's all of last week's reports that need to be sorted, dry cleaning to be picked up, the kettle in the kitchen needs descaling, and I've got to go down to the markets and pick up a load of fish for Myfanwy.'

Jack cocked his head to the side, seeing how tired and worn down his lover looked. Even now, after forty eight hours straight on the job, he was still generating a list of work to be done, not all of it urgent and some of it completely unnecessary in Jack's opinion. Who descaled their kettle? It was full of water and boiled. Cleaning of any kind seemed a total waste of time.

'If I have to order you to rest, I will. No special treatment, you hear me?'

Ianto pouted in that little way that made Jack not want to be annoyed with him. He sat down next to him and grabbed his hand.

'Please, Ianto. You need rest. You're no good to me when you fall over in an exhausted heap.'

Just when Jack thought he saw the inklings of a nod of acquiescence, he seemed to slump in Jack's arms and a moment of panic flashed through his mind.

'Owen!' he called out.

'Relax, it's fine,' he said, wandering over. 'Slow working sedative.'

'You drugged him?'

Owen shrugged. 'Knew he wouldn't take me seriously when I told him to rest up so I took the decision out of his hands.'

'That's dirty and underhanded, even for you,' Jack grinned. 'I approve.'

'Thought you might.'

 

Jack helped to lower a very groggy Ianto down onto the sofa until he was lying down, pulling his legs up off the floor and covering him with a blanket. He loved Ianto for his tenacity, but his stubbornness often left Jack exasperated.

'Should be out for the count for a good five or six hours,' Owen said. 'Might even sleep through that. Just kind of wish we'd let him go out and fetch breakfast first. I'm bloody starving.'

Jack was running his fingers lazily through Ianto's hair when his wrist strap began beeping furiously. He pulled away quickly, trying not to wake Ianto with the sound before remembering Ianto wouldn't have heard it anyway.

'Looks like breakfast is on hold, Owen,' he announced. 'Rift alert in Splott.'

Owen let out an irritated grumble. 'Why the hell is it always Splott? Someone from the council should blow the whole place up and start over.'

'Well,' Jack said, looking concerned, 'if these readings are anything to go by, we might not need to involve the council. Grab Tosh and Gwen and meet me up top. And grab one of those blast containment units and a body bag.'

'A body bag? What the hell do we need a body bag for?' he cried out.

'Just a precaution,' Jack replied. In case they had to cart him back to the hub in bits, he didn't add out loud.

 

As Owen was rushing off the gather up the rest of the team and their equipment, Jack felt something nudge his leg. Looking down he spotted Nosy  looked worriedly between him and Ianto. It had watched as Ianto was laid down on the sofa and thought he might be sick.

'He's fine, Nosy,' Jack said, answering the question in the fluff's expression. 'He's just sleeping. Think you can keep an eye on him while we're out?'

Nosy hummed happily. Looking after fluffs was second nature, and looking after humans was not that much harder.

'Good,' Jack replied. 'We'll only be gone a few hours. It'll be a piece of cake.'

And with that he was dashing out the door.

 

Left alone in the hub, Nosy crawled over to the sofa to inspect its charge. Just as Jack has said, Ianto was sleeping peacefully. The fluff grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it up higher until it was sure that Ianto wouldn't get a chill. The hub was cold in winter no matter how much they cranked the heating up, and the team had already gone through two rounds of colds and flu this winter. Nosy didn't want to make it a third. Satisfied that all was as it should be, the fluff curled up underneath the sofa and settled in for a quiet day.

 

Nosy had been dozing, dreaming about making red and green paper chains to hang around to hub for Christmas, when the sound of an alarm started going off. Alarms went off all the time, and it knew there were different one for different kinds of things. Most of the time it didn't worry, because one of the team would be here to check it out, but the alarm that was going off now was bad. It was a rift alarm. Something had come through. And then another alarm went off. The intruder alarm. It didn't take a fluff genius to work out that whatever had come through the rift, had come straight through into the hub.

Nosy wanted to go and investigate. It might be nothing after all, just a bicycle tyre or a terrarium. Then again, it could be a weevil, or something else living. Nosy crawled over to Ianto and began nudging him to wake him up. The alarms should have woken him, they were certainly making enough noise, but Ianto didn't stir. Nosy shoved its furry nose against his ear, something that usually annoyed him because it tickled, and Ianto was terribly ticklish, but even that didn't wake him. Owen must have given him some medicine to help him sleep, Nosy decided. It was on its own.

Before it had time to think about what to do next, there was a shimmering in the air not far away. Like smoke rising from a flame, a large black object seems to appear out of nothing. It fluttered about like it was made out of long black ribbons that rippled in the air, moving about to a unseen breeze. It was approximately the size and shape of a man, but maybe a bit taller, as it slowly stepped toward them, long tendrils flickering and undulating. The alarms around the hub fell silent, as if the creature had somehow deactivated them. Every sound in the hub seemed to have stopped, the thrum of the computers, the odd clanking from the rift machine and even the trickling of water down the tower into the stagnant pool below. The whole hub had descended into eery silence.

Nosy couldn't make out any facial features yet its gaze, for want of a better word, seemed fixed on Ianto, and Nosy could sense its menace.

As it slowly swept forward, Nosy backed away, keeping itself between them, praying that Ianto would wake up before it got closer. Nosy spied the abandoned coffee mug on the nearby table and flicked it in the direction of the creature, but it merely passed easily through the long folds of its tentacle like ribbons.

It crept closer and closer until it was almost on top of them, towering over both of them. Nosy knew it couldn't let it get to Ianto, lying there helpless and defenseless. Nosy couldn't hold a weapon or do anything else brave or clever, but it also knew it had to do something. It would never forgive itself if anything happened to one of the team. As it floated another step closer, Nosy did the only thing it could think of. Lunging forward it wrapped its long body around the ribbon creature, trying to capture the long tendrils so that they couldn't reach out any further. Around and around the fluff wrapped itself, like a snake coiled around its victim, and Nosy squeezed tight, not worrying for its own safety and what the creature might do to it.

The ribbons of blackness quivered and the tighter Nosy squeezed, the less it realised there was to squeeze, as if it was made of nothing but smoke. Then, just as suddenly, in a puff it was gone, black tendrils evaporating into nothing.

Nosy collapsed to the floor now hanging onto nothing. Slithering over to the computer screen on Tosh's desk, it could see that the alarms tracking the location of the alien had gone blank, confirming that it was gone.

Nosy cast a look back at his sleeping teammate. He wanted to go over and check him more closely, but Nosy kept its distance. It felt fine, but having been in close contact with an alien of unknown origin, it knew enough to not risk transferring anything from its contact until Owen could check it over and give them the all clear.

 

Ten minutes later, Jack burst through the cogwheel doors gun raised, looking frantic. The alarms that had gone off in the hub had been transmitted to the team in situ, and Jack hadn't hesitated in rushing back to the hub at the alert to an alien incursion. A quick sweep of the main hub confirmed for them that the alien had gone, as did Tosh's scans and diagnostics.

'What the hell happened?' Jack asked, still looking a little pale, having rushed over to make sure Ianto was okay.

Tosh pulled up the CCTV and the team watched the spectacle as the ribbon creature appeared from nowhere, proceeding over to where Ianto had been lying prone, before Nosy intervened, enveloping the alien.

'Wait,' Jack said, looking around, 'where is Nosy?'

A low hum came from behind them, and Jack leaned over the railing to see Nosy curled up in Owen's autopsy bay, dutifully awaiting its checkup.

Jack didn't bother with worries about contamination, he simply leapt down the stairs two at a time until he could reach Nosy and wrap his arms around it, hugging tightly.

'You saved my Ianto,' Jack said, kissing Nosy's head. 'I don't know how, but you did.'

The fluff hummed in response, sounding a little deflated.

'Yeah, alright, Jack,' Owen said, pulling him away. 'Let me check over Nosy and make sure it's okay before you start celebrating.'

 

Owen finally cleared Nosy of any residual alien traces, although it seemed a little cold and lethargic, so he tucked it up in a blanket and suggested Nosy rest. The fluff nodded and dragged the thick blanket up the stairs and across the hub until it could make a little nest for itself right next to the sofa to curl up in. Tired as it was, and even though the rest of the team were back and on high alert for a repeat incursion, Nosy didn't feel like leaving Ianto's side until it was sure Ianto was okay.

Tosh spent the rest of the afternoon running infinite systems checks, trying to figure out how  the creature had gotten past all of their shielding protocols, but in the end, the intrusion was a complete mystery.

'You don't suppose that bomb was a distraction, do you?' Gwen asked, remembering the wild goose chase out in Splott that had turned up a bomb that was well past its best by, completely inert and useless.

'Who knows?' Jack replied. 'Guess we were just lucky that whatever it was, it didn't get whatever it was after.'

'That's too many whatevers for my liking,' Owen added.

'Agreed. But I don't know what we do about it.'

'Well,' Tosh said, 'I've added whatever data the hub collected on the creature and added it to our list of shield protocols. Hopefully it should stop it coming back, or at least give us fair warning next time.'

'Good work, Tosh. Now, I think everyone should take the rest of the day off.'

'No argument from me,' Owen said.

'What about that thing?' Gwen said. 'Are you sure you'll be okay here without us?'

'Don't worry,' Jack replied. 'I've got my gun and our resident guard dog,' he said, giving Nosy a scratch on its head, as he sat on the end of the sofa. 'We'll be just fine.'

 

Ianto began to stir about an hour later just as Jack was beginning to daydream, alerted by the movement of Ianto's head in his lap.

'Hey sleepyhead,' he said.

'Hey.'

'Sleep okay?'

'Yeah,' Ianto agreed, surprised at how refreshed he felt. 'Don't even remember falling asleep.'

Jack grinned. 'Must've been tried.'

'Must've,' Ianto agreed. 'Anything exciting happen?'

'Oh, you know,' Jack said casually, 'just the usual. Alien bomb threats in Splott and deadly hub invasions.'

Ianto bolted up out of Jack's lap. 'Wait, what? Did you just say hub invasions?'

'Yeah, but don't worry. Nosy saved you from, well, we don't really know what it was, actually.'

'Wait, what? Nosy?' Ianto blinked. 'What?'

'That's two waits and too many whats. Here,' Jack reached out a hand and helped Ianto off the sofa, leading him over to one of the computers to show him. As they watched the footage he felt Ianto shudder slightly in his arms. Even having watched it a few times himself, it still creeped him out. He'd never seen anything like it, and it certainly didn't look like it was only coming over to say hello and shake their hands.

'What did Nosy just do?' Ianto asked perplexed by what he was seeing, and considering having a strong word with Jack about Owen's brilliant idea to drug him into oblivion whilst the hub was being invaded by hostile aliens. Someone was going to be on decaf for a week.

'No idea,' Jack confessed, 'but whatever it did, it worked.'

Ianto's expression suddenly returned to one of concern. 'Is Nosy okay?'

'See for yourself,' Jack said, indicating the spot under the sofa where Nosy was settled. 'It was determined to stay with you until it knew you were safe. Owen gave it a clean bill of health.'

Ianto went over and knelt on the floor, stroking Nosy's fur and listening to its contented hums.

'Thank you. I don't know what you did, but thank you.'

Nosy hummed appreciatively, looking quite pleased with itself.

Jack joined Ianto on the floor and added his own thanks. 'How do you thank a fluff for saving your priceless lover?'  

Ianto smiled. 'I don't think fluffs are big on wanting rewards. I think just being around makes them happy.'

'Well, be that as it may, I still think Nosy should get something for its efforts.'

 

It took them a week of brainstorming, but finally they were struck by a moment of inspiration one night when they were washing up the remaining dishes, Ianto's gloved hands in the sudsy  water giving him the idea.

The next day, after a trip to the shops, they called Nosy over to a large box covered in colourful wrapping. Being sensitive, they decided to forgo the curly ribbons which reminded all of them of the bizarre creature that had invaded the hub.

Nosy had fun tearing the wrapping off, aided by Jack who was enjoying it with equal fervour until the gift inside was revealed.

'It's a bubble machine,' Ianto explained. He knew how much Nosy liked blowing bubbles with Jack, but there were times when they just didn't have time to spare, dipping wands into bottles of mixture so that Nosy could enjoy them.

'You flick this switch on here and it will blow out as many bubbles as you like.'

He flipped it on, having filled it up before wrapping it, and the little machine hummed and ejected a stream of colourful bubbles into the air.

Nosy squealed and hummed in a delighted way, popping some with its nose and letting the rest float about until they popped of their own accord.

'I think Nosy likes it,' Jack said, watching the fluff crawl about in amongst the bubbles.

'It'll be a little but of work to clean up so that no one slips on the soapy residue,' Ianto added, 'but I can live with it. If it wasn't for Nosy, I might not be here at all.'

'Nosy is definitely not just a pet, it's a vital member of the team,' Jack agreed, smiling as a bubble landed on his nose and popped.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Heroic Fluff! Nosy might look soft and harmless, but it's perfectly capable of protecting its friends, slinking and slithering about the Hub in search of new foes to vanquish now Jack has promoted it to Team Member and Guard Fluff!

Thank you for this =D

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Nosy will certainly be feeling a renewed sense of purpose, and a definite confidence boost. :)