Torchwood: Fanfic: Brain food

[m_findlow]

Title: Brain food
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Tosh
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,956 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, are you insinuating that I'm a nerd? Yeah, but you're a really hot nerd " at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack takes Tosh out to dinner to discuss important matters

Jack sat in his office, pretending to do work. It was pretty hard since he was primarily responsible for keeping himself busy. He was running an entire secret organisation, so surely there had to be something he should be doing. There had to be more to it than just waiting for an alien to drop into their laps.

Outside he could hear the insistent clacking of keys that signaled Tosh hard at work at the desk just outside his office. He had no idea how she could be working so hard when he hadn't really given her anything to do. This whole being the boss thing was still pretty new to him, having always either taken orders from someone else, or having done his own thing. Still, he was glad for the company. He was used to the hub being full of activity and people. Ever since New Year's Eve two years ago, it had been eerily silent and lonely, and he could feel the weight of all the ghosts, as if they lurked in every nook and cranny of the hub, watching him, judging him, waiting to snatch him sometimes, he was convinced.

He didn't tell Tosh that though. She was still pretty new to the whole place and he didn't want to scare her off. She might have been convinced that there was no way out for her except to go back to that UNIT prison, but if she did run away on him, he didn't think he'd come after her. She was too brilliant and too nice to send back there, as much as it would hurt him to not have her here, adding her very brilliant mind to whatever the rift decided to throw at them. He was the brawn but she was definitely the brains.

Deciding he'd had enough of procrastinating about nothing, he stood up and grabbed his coat.

'Hey Tosh. Grab your coat.'

She seemed startled by the sudden intrusion into her concentration. 'Oh, okay. Is it the rift? Only I didn't see any alerts come up.'

'Nope. Not the rift. We're just going out.'

He drove them into the city centre, finally parking the big black SUV on double yellow lines and stepping out. Tosh got out of her side of the car and looked around nervously. The alley was narrow and didn't look all that inviting.

'Is there something alien down there?' she asked.

'God I hope not,' Jack laughed. 'That would really ruin things.'

She looked at him, confused. 'So what are we doing here?'

'Dinner, of course.'

There were plenty of restaurants around the bay, just mere metres from the hub - walking distance - but they were all the same. Fancy views of the bay, shiny heavy cutlery and white cloth napkins. The kinds of places where it was less about the food and more about the experience and ambience. As far as Jack was concerned, the only ambience he wanted was the hustle and bustle of a kitchen that couldn't keep up with the demand for food. The best kinds of eateries were those tiny little ones tucked away in the corners of the city, yet always full to the brim with people, in tables packed so tightly together they were almost end to end. There the food was fast and furious, just like the wait staff, and you could barely hear yourself think over the clamor of fellow patrons, all jostling to be heard over the loud din of conversation.

It looked dingy from the outside, but inside it was chaos. Jack was the kind of guy who loved chaos, pushing open the front door and heckling them a table for two. He didn't bother with the cheap laminated menus, simply ordering a long string of dishes before they were even seated, most of which Tosh could barely comprehend, let alone pronounce.

She shucked her coat, laying it over the back of her chair. 'Busy place. Do you come here often?'

'Every now and then. If I could get them to deliver, we'd really be in business.'

Of course, she thought. Jack had to stay at the hub and keep an eye on the rift every night. After just a few months working together, she'd come to the conclusion that charming and friendly as he was, he didn't really have many friends, and that he was basically married to his job. That was something she could definitely relate to.

'So how're you enjoying Cardiff?' he asked, sipping at his glass of water.

'Oh,' she said, surprised by the question. 'It's nice. Quieter than London.'

'Apartment okay?'

'Very nice,' she replied, still not sure why he'd gone to so such trouble to set her up here. She could've sorted out her own place, but perhaps he wanted her somewhere he could keep tabs. Maybe the place was bugged. No one she knew gave you an apartment for free, fully furnished with no obligations.

'Good,' he replied, nodding and looking pleased. 'Nice to be able to put it to use.'

'It's yours?'

Jack shrugged. 'One of,' he said.

She sat up and looked at him in earnest. 'You should take the rent out of my pay, then.' It didn't bother her. She got paid plenty and had nothing else to spend it on. It was the least she could do.

Jack grinned at her over his glass. 'Who says I'm not already?'

The food arrived on several large plates and bowls. She had no idea what any of it was, but it all looked and smelled amazing, and if Jack's eagerness to scoop large spoonfuls of it into his bowl was anything to go by, he would happily eat whatever she didn't.

Whilst they ate, Jack peppered her with seemingly innocuous questions about where she'd grown up, what her parents did, what kind of movies did she like, and dozens more. Despite adding her own questions, of which she always had hundreds, she still felt like she knew absolutely nothing at all about Jack. He didn't avoid her questions, and he was chatty enough, but even though he could talk for hours, she always felt like he'd said nothing at all when you boiled it all down. He was charming and enigmatic, made her laugh, and she felt completely at ease with him, knowing that he wasn't here because he pitied her, nor because he wanted to sleep with her, but just because he liked hanging out with her. They were a miniature team, doing the kind of job they couldn't ever tell anyone else about. It was thrilling and illuminating, tough some days,  and incredibly frustrating on others, so it was nice to be able to unwind from it all, even if it was only for a few hours. Then he'd have to go back, and she'd go home to her freshly furnished apartment, wondering just who he was that had saved her from a lifetime of prison.

'Tosh,' he said, finally pausing between mouthfuls. 'There's something I've been meaning to ask you.'

'Okay,' she said, unsure why he was suddenly so guarded.

'Don't take this the wrong way, but the rift has been idle for days, and you've been busily working away like an entire fleet of aliens has landed on our doorstep. Can I ask what exactly it is you've been doing?'

'Oh,' she paused, trying not to look guilty. She had access to all of their systems, but perhaps she'd overstepped her mark in taking advantage of them. 'I was, uh, gathering data.'

'What kind of data?' he said, eyeing her with suspicion.

'All kinds. Well, rift data obviously, but weather data, solar activity, air quality, temperature, tidal movements, planetary shifts.'

Jack frowned. He'd thought maybe she was looking for alien artifacts, some kind of alien technology or weaponry. He knew he should trust her, but he'd been let down so many times over the years that trust was a hard won thing. 'Why?' was the only question he could think of.

She pushed the noodles around her bowl with the fork, not meeting his gaze.

'It's probably nothing,' she said. 'I just thought maybe there might be some kind of link between rift activity and external factors. I though maybe if I could get enough data, I could look for correlations, maybe try and build some models. I know it sounds silly, but I liked the idea that maybe we could build a program that could try to predict rift flares. Stupid, I know. Even if we had all the data in the world, it might take years to build a predictive model, assuming it worked at all.'

She chanced a look up at him, wondering if he'd be angry at her. Instead, he seemed to be watching something happening past her shoulder. She turned around and saw a couple having a heated argument.

'Jack?' she said.

'Huh?' he replied, snapping his attention back to her.

'Were you even listening to me?'

'Sorry,' he apologised. 'You started talking about correlations and models and I kinda lost interest. I mean, not that it's not very interesting, because it is, I think. No, I mean it is interesting, to, you know, the right kind of people,' he trailed off awkwardly.

She'd seen that look before. That disinterested, glazed look that said they'd rather be anywhere else, rather than listen to what she had to say.

'Are you insinuating that I'm a nerd?'

'No,' he quickly replied. 'Er, actually, yes. But you're a really hot nerd,' he said, trying to salvage something from the sudden downhill turn in their conversation. This had been going so well, and then he'd had to go and ruin it all by being a busy body, and then topping it all off by being so bored by it that he'd gotten caught tuning out.

'Sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean to call you a nerd. You're a highly intelligent woman and I'm actually in awe of your brilliance every single day.'

She saw the contrite look on his face and felt sorry for him. It was true that very few people could appreciate the technical detail of half of what fascinated her. Jack had shown her all his patience in teaching her everything he knew, but it really only went one way. If something they came across had him stumped, no amount of Tosh's education was going to help her explain to him what came to her naturally.

'That's okay,' she said. 'You're right. I am a nerd. No one's ever called me a hot nerd before, though.' No one had ever called her a hot anything, nor were they ever likely to.

'Not to your face,' he replied. 'Anyone who doesn't think you're hot has rocks in their head.'

'Well, there must be a lot of people walking around with rocks in their head, then,' she said, laughing awkwardly and trying to steer the conversation away from herself.

He grinned. 'Maybe we should check that out when we get back to the hub.'

'Maybe,' she agreed, seeing nothing but kindness etched in his expression.

'And maybe you should keep working on that program. I know you think it's probably a long shot, but if anyone can figure out a way to predict the rift, I'd put my money on you. Whatever you need just tell me and it's yours.'

She tried hard not to blush at the obvious compliment. Jack was definitely not like any other boss.

'Come on, my hot little nerd. The night is still young and we haven't had dessert yet. If there's anything I've learned working for Torchwood, it's that you never pass up an opportunity for complex carbohydrates, no matter how much of a genius you are.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

There's nothing wrong with being a nerd, Tosh, but you're so much more than that - a brilliant and beautiful woman wjo deserves to be happy.