Torchwood: Fanfic: Trigger happy

[m_findlow]

Title: Trigger happy
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Owen, Ianto Tosh, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG (with a little bit of naughty language)
Length: 2,145 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, the one time the only option was to press the button" at fic_promptly
Summary: Things could be about to end very badly...

'Owen, I'm getting a rift alert just a few miles from your current location,' Tosh's voice rang out through the SUV 's radio speakers, interrupting the music that had been flowing through it moments before. It wasn't quite to Ianto's taste, but he wasn't driving, and Owen rarely gave any worry to what the others thought of as tasteful music.

Owen sighed loudly, catching a glimpse of the new tear in his favourite leather jacket. Just another thing to be annoyed about. Why couldn't the others help for once? he thought grumpily. Here he was, stuck doing the lion's share of the hard graft, having spent the entire morning relocating a rather obnoxious weevil. He was a big guy, which meant there was no way either of Gwen or Tosh was going to be strong enough to help him lug it back down into the sewer system, meaning he'd been lumped with Ianto.

It wasn't that he disliked Ianto, he just didn't think he quite had what it took to be a proper Torchwood agent. Not that they had much choice in the matter anymore. Ever since Jack had taken off for God only knew where, they'd been well and truly undermanned. For all Owen's taunting that Jack did nothing but supervise and flirt with bystanders, the workload certainly hadn't gotten any easier in his absence. Perhaps he needed to rethink Jack's role. Then again, that assumed he'd ever get the chance to give him a bollocking for leaving in the first place. Might be he was never coming back. Everyone else was convinced that he was, but Owen wasn't so sure. He didn't know much about this Doctor fellow, but it had to beat hauling weevils around the sewers.

'Have you got a location, Tosh?' Ianto asked, interrupting Owen's train of thought.

'Just off Universal Street. I'm bringing up aerial data now. Looks like it's coming from one of the front yards.'

'What are we talking about, Tosh?' Owen asked.

'I don't know,' she said, sounding edgy, 'it's not like anything our computers recognise, but it's getting stronger.'

'That doesn't sound good,' Ianto replied.

They pulled up along the street full of two storey terrace houses, jumping out and walking down until the reached the house the signal was emanating from. It wasn't hard, both their PDAs were just about screaming with the intensity of the signal being picked up. Pushing open the front gate, the object was obvious. It was oddly shaped, partly hexagonal at one bulbous end, and then tapered off to a very slim tip at the other end, like some abstract raindrop, glistening a pearlescent green and blue, and humming loudly.

'Tosh, can you make sense of any of these readings?' Owen asked, hovering his PDA over it, feeding the information back to her at the hub.

'Nothing sorry, but if I were you I'd probably not put the PDA so close to it.'

'Why's that?'

'I think it's upsetting it. The power just spiked unusually when you got close.'

Owen quickly whipped his hand away and they both took a step back from it, considering it warily.

'Okay, so what are we supposed to do with it?'

Again Tosh didn't have any answer for them, but whilst she was trying to search their databases for anything useful, it began to hum louder, vibrating as well.

'That doesn't look good,' Ianto said, trying to get a better look at it from a safe distance. 'I think maybe there's a small control panel on the underside there,' he said, pointing to the part of the object that was nestled into the overgrown lawn.

'Yeah, you're right,' Owen said, spotting the same on closer inspection. He pulled out his phone, hoping it would upset the device less than his PDA, and trying to angle the camera so that Tosh could get a look at it.

'Looks like there's only one control on it,' he said. 'Should we try it?'

'No, definitely not,' Tosh ordered. 'You could set it off.'

'Set it off?' he said, confused. 'What do you think it does?'

'Uh, I think it might be a bomb.'

They both staggered back quickly.

'Shit. You think it's active?'

'I don't think it hums because it's bored,' Ianto quipped. Now probably wasn't the time for sarcasm, but he didn't know what else to say.

'Tosh, do something!' Owen barked. 'Tell us how to stop it.'

'I, I don't know, Owen. I've never seen anything like it. We're running as many searches as we can for anything similar.'

'Well, then get your arse here and figure something out instead!'

'I don't think we've got that long,' Ianto replied, sensing the reply from Tosh.

The object began the vibrate even more, almost to the point where it was shuddering, and starting to glow.

'Owen, get out of there! The power has gone off the scales!' Tosh cried.

'We can't just go. If this thing goes off, we have no idea how big it might be. Ianto, start evacuating the street.'

Before Ianto had a chance to move, the hum became a high pitched whine, hurting their ears.

'I think we might be too late for that.'

They looked at each other, knowing it for truth, and knowing that they'd be the first to get blown up, right at the epicenter of whatever happened next.

'Guys, I'm so sorry, I don't know what do to,' Tosh said, sounding frantic. 'Please just get out of there. Get as far away as you can.'

Fuck, Owen thought. This was all Jack's fault. If he was here this wouldn't be happening.

'Fucking Harkness! Are you happy now?' he screamed to no one in particular. Ianto met his gaze and he saw a sadness there. Whether Jack was coming back or not, neither of them were going to live long enough to find out.

Owen gave the object one last look before it decided to blow them to bits, spying the single button on the underside of it and giving Ianto another look.

Sit here and wait to be blown up, or bring forth the inevitable? was the question in his look. Ianto just shrugged. What happened when they pressed it was anyone's guess really. Normally, not pressing buttons was rule number one. Well, maybe number two, straight after "don't mess with the rift", but what was the worst that could happen, given the circumstances?

'Fuck it,' Owen said, kneeling down and reaching under it, not hesitating in pressing it in case he chickened out at the last second.

The humming stopped abruptly and the object ceased glowing and shuddering, settling back into a state akin to inert. Owen sat back on his haunches and felt like he'd run a marathon, relief all over his face. Ianto was white as a sheet, having been less than ready to be blown up either way, only now risking opening his eyes again.

'Owen, Ianto!' Tosh said. 'The power surges, they've stopped altogether!' she cried.

'We know,' Owen replied, feeling shaky.

'What happened?'

'I pressed the button.'

'You did what? But that could have set it off!'

'Yeah, well, looked like we were fucked either way,' he said, letting Ianto help him back to his feet. 'Figured there was no harm in trying.'

He could hear Tosh sucking in a long breath on the other end of the line. Clearly she was still a little flustered herself. 'Okay,' she said regaining her composure, 'I'd say it might be safe to move, but then again we really don't know.'

'Are you saying it might still blow up?' Ianto asked, eyeing it suspiciously. Just when he'd though the most dangerous part of his day was going to be the weevil.

'I'm on my way there right now. Just, well, maybe get everyone else out of the way, just in case,' she suggested.

'Thanks Tosh,' Owen replied. 'I'll feel a lot better once someone is here who knows more about these things. No offense mate,' he said, giving Ianto a sympathetic look.

'None taken,' he replied, glad that the most difficult thing he might be required to do today would be to descale the coffee machine. Computers were one thing. Machines were a whole other ball of wax.

Ianto offered to start doorknocking whilst Owen stayed to babysit then device.

'Gee, thanks,' Owen snarled. 'I get to stick around in case it decides to go ballistic again.'

Ianto shrugged and smirked. 'You could always press the button again.'

'Probably get blown to kingdom come next time. Think I'll just run like buggery.'

News of the slow gas leak filtered down the street and into the next one courtesy of the very polite utilities company representative. His neat suit and calm demeanor were very convincing, leaving the locals meandering a few streets away, looking like lost sheep.

Owen breathed a sigh of relief as Tosh and Gwen finally rolled up to the kerb in Gwen's electric blue Renault.

'Took your time,' he complained.

'Well, we might have found something useful,' Gwen said, looking pleased. 'It was in the paper records that hadn't been scanned in yet. Easy enough to find, thanks to that new archiving system.'

'Knew it'd come in handy one day,' Ianto smiled, looking equally pleased.

'Yeah, all you need now is a map on how to get back out of there,' she added. 'I got lost twice.'

'Working on it,' he apologised.

'So are we up for nuclear holocaust or what?' Owen said, tired of chit chat.

'Nope,' Tosh replied, 'but it would have been a shame if it had gone off.'

'Why's that?'

'It's kind of like a giant firework. You press the button to set the timer for letting it off, and press it again if you want to deactivate it.'

'So what you're saying is that we should've pressed it straight away?' Told you this no pressing buttons business was a load of rubbish,' he snarked.

'Except when you think of how many times pressing buttons has gotten us in more trouble,' Ianto replied.

'More trouble for Jack, more like,' he grizzled. 'He was always pushing buttons first and asking questions later.'

'Well, we can't all live forever like him, so the policy still stands,' Gwen said, asserting herself as their leader. 'I'd rather wait until Tosh says something is safe before we go pushing buttons.'

A few minutes later they had managed to pack the large object in the back of the SUV, assured that it was now most definitely in the off position.

On the way back to the hub, Owen spoke up.

'I think we should set it off.'

'What?'

'The alien firework. What's the point in collecting stuff that's useless? Don't think it's going to help arm us against the future. For all the crap we put up with, it'd be nice to have a bit of fun, you know? Toast some marshmallows, set off a few fireworks.'

'Probably true,' Tosh agreed. 'I'll have a look at it and make sure it's safe, but why not?'

'Agreed,' Gwen said. 'I think we could all use a bit of fun around here.' Things just weren't the same without Jack here, and fun was severely lacking in their day-to-day lives.

A few hours later, they were back in the SUV, trundling down the costal road in the darkness until they pulled off the road at a secluded beachfront area, lugging the large device down the dunes with them. Gwen was carrying a cooler of drinks and Tosh had a bag filled full of junk food and a large picnic blanket.

They set themselves up on the beach with a large camping lantern, setting the device a good fifty yards away, letting Owen do the honors of pressing the button again, setting the timer to go off in about twenty minutes before heading back to their makeshift camp on the beach. They settled themselves down to a very unhealthy dinner, regaling themselves with funny stories of other near misses and quirky technology. Then suddenly the sky erupted in the biggest shower of coloured sparks that seemed to filled the entire sky with a million colours, glittering off the surface of the sea and adding to the spectacle, which seemed to go on forever, exploding into more and more florets of sparkling light, as they sat there, eating, drinking and making exclamations of awe and wonder at the night sky.

'Wow, that was something else,' Tosh said, unable to keep the smile off her face. For all the ugly stuff that came through the rift, this definitely made up for it.

'Jack would have loved that,' Ianto said, sounding a little despondent.

Gwen gave him a little hug. 'You never know. Maybe wherever he is he saw it, and knows that we're still, here waiting for him to come back.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

So glad it was a firework and not a bomb. A bit of enjoyment amidst all the hard slog would do them the world of good and remind them that there are good things out there as well as all the bad they get to see.