Torchwood: Fanfic: On thin ice

[m_findlow]

Title: On thin ice
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Suzie, Owen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,303 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, keeping your balance on the ice" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack is about to be well and truly tested

'Are we close?' Jack called out to Suzie, standing close to the top of the ridge, her black hair spilling out from under her beanie and down the back of her coat.

'About another half mile this way,' she called back, pointing directly in front of her.

Owen trudged up beside Jack, breathing hard, his breath coming out in short white puffs against the bracing cold. He bent over, clutching his knees.

'Keep up,' Jack said, grinning.

'Sod off. I've got shorter legs than you. That and I keep tripping over in the great big holes you're making in the snow.'

'You're welcome to take the lead,' Jack said, offering for him to go first. Predictably Owen declined, much preferring to let Jack plough a path through the two feet of snow. He didn't even look cold, coat still flapping loosely about him. Suzie had almost danced up the ridge, her thinner, lighter frame not making nearly as deep a hole with each step, skipping over the thickest drifts of snow with ease.

When the pair of them reached the top, they saw the view down below that Suzie had already seen, as the valley dipped low, culminating in a river of white at its very base.

'Be lucky if we don't break a leg going down that,' Owen muttered.

'Where's a toboggan when you need one?' Jack joked.

They stumbled and staggered down the rocky hillside catching up with Suzie who was consulting her PDA clumsily through woolen mittens.

'Across the stream,' she said, looking over towards the wooded area.

'Stream?' Jack said, looking down at the twenty foot expanse. 'More like a river.'

'Nope, just a stream,' she confirmed. 'It's frozen over though, so we can skip straight across it.'

Owen frowned, looking skeptical. 'You sure it'll hold our weight? Last thing we need is to have someone plunge through a crack and get hypothermia.'

'Well, whilst I was waiting for you two twinkle toes, I scanned it. It's at least a foot thick even at the thinnest patches. Plenty strong enough.'

To demonstrate, she stepped out onto the ice and began shuffling easily across its surface, before reaching the halfway mark and turning to look at them.

'Well, come on!' she called.

'Yeah, alright, keep your shirt on,' Owen grumbled, plodding to the edge, and scooting somewhat awkwardly across the snowy surface. Only Jack remained behind.

Ice. Why did it have to be ice? Snow was fine. He loved snow, and snowmen, and snow angels, snowball fights and snow cones, but ice? He'd never even seen ice until he was in his twenties. The first time he'd stood out and felt the light flakes of snow falling all around him, it had been like magic, watching them turn into great piles of white, but watching water frozen over was completely alien. He'd grown up watching the ocean pounding against the shore, green and blue, throwing up plumes of white as it crashed against the beach. To his mind, water was an ever moving constant. Seeing it solidified in place was somehow unnatural.

He'd watched the Thames freeze over in 1898, Londoners flocking to the water's edge to partake in skating across its surface whilst he watched on from afar. He'd struggled over frozen streams in France in 1939, their surface covered in dead and dying. But never had he mastered the art of ice-skating.

'Get a move on, boss!' Owen yelled. 'I don't wanna spend all day out here.'

Standing there now, he saw the pair of them on the other side, and the frozen expanse in front of him looked like it was fifty feet wide instead of just twenty. There was nothing hard about this, he told himself, it's just ice. Just walk straight across.

He took his first purposeful stride out onto the stream and as his other foot left the safety of the bank, his first foot slid horribly forward. He knew what would happen next before it had even occurred, the ground beneath him falling away until he was flat on his back, the impact winding him slightly. At least his head had flopped into the snow drift at the stream's edge and not the hard ice.

It was all Owen and Suzie could do not to laugh, watching their leader fall over so spectacularly, and watch as he struggled to put himself back upright, slipping and sliding the whole time. He finally righted himself, but he didn't look at all composed, knees bent at odd angles, and arms stretched out to each side, trying hard to stay standing let alone moving.

'Move it, Fred Astaire!'

Jack wobbled a foot out in front of him and felt himself move slightly. He tried with the other foot, but became unsteady, arms flailing in a windmill fashion, as if trying to fly might help his cause. He managed to arrest his movement before he face planted or broke a hip.

'You go on,' he yelled at them. 'I'll wait here.'

'Don't be stupid, Jack,' Suzie yelled back.

'It's not that bloody hard,' Owen added.

The pair of them looked at one another, watching Jack wobble again. 'You'd think he'd never been on ice before,' Owen said.

'We can't just leave him there,' she replied.

'Why not? Reckon we should take a few pictures. Entertaining watching Captain Flashy make an arse of himself.'

'And you think I'm cold hearted,' she said, making her way back out onto the ice, shuffling towards their failing leader. In the time it took her to slide over, he'd fallen on his back again, lying there staring up at the sky, which was a similar shade of white.

'Having fun down there?' Suzie asked, leaning over him.

'Loads.'

She reached down and grabbed him by both hands, helping to stand up on the slippery surface. Once standing, he nearly fell forward, sending them both tumbling.

'Careful now, Jack,' she said. 'Can't have you falling into my arms. Owen might get jealous.'

Jack laughed. 'I'm better looking. There's no competition.'

'Okay,' she said, taking his large hands firmly in her own small ones. 'Slide your foot forward and outwards. As the first one pushes out, push the other one forward.'

He didn't think it would work, but he tried anyway. Unexpectedly, he didn't fall over. Slowly but surely, he was moving.

'How do you make it look so easy?' he asked, watching Suzie gliding backwards in front of him, as he took his eyes off his own feet he slipped slightly, gripping her hands a little tighter than he meant to. Suzie tried hard not to wince.

'Sorry,' he apologised.

'Just keep going. You're actually doing better if you don't look down.'

'You know, a guy called Aleksandr once told me the same thing learning to walk a tightrope.'

'You can walk a tightrope, but you can't ice-skate?'

Jack avoided shrugging too heavily. 'It was a necessary skill at the time.'

Suzie finally managed to back up to the snowy embankment, pulling Jack with her.

'Took your time,' Owen grumbled. 'Could've walked there and back while I was waiting.'

'So, why didn't you?' Suzie asked. 'Would've saved us a lot of trouble if you'd gone ahead and checked it out.'

'Yeah, well, there was every chance you guys were going to end up in the drink. Someone had to be here to drag you out if that happened.'

Jack shook himself off, glad for the firm ground back beneath his boots. 'This was fun,' he said, with no amount of mirth. 'We should do it again some time.'

'Don't worry, Jack,' Suzie replied. 'You'll get your chance when we have to cross back again.'

Oh. He'd forgotten about that. What chance that the rift had given them a zamboni or at least a dog sled?

Comments

[bk_forever]

Awww, I feel sorry for poor Jack, ice is more alien to him than most aliens are!