m_findlow

Title: Lost and found
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,716 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for January Special - A Light in the Darkness at fffc
Summary: Jack gets hopelessly lost in the hub.

Jack swore as he was plunged into darkness. He waited the obligatory ten seconds it would take their backup generator to kick in. When it didn't, he swore again. He tapped his comms but there was nothing but silence. Just as expected, when the generator had failed to kick in, everything else had fallen over as well.

He delved into his pocket, searching for his phone so that he could call Ianto and ask him what the hell had just happened. Given the late hour, he was probably the only one still here. Where was his phone? He tried the other pocket. Damn. He must have left it on his desk. Of all the times to be without it.

He'd been going for a long walk around the hub, partly because he'd hardly moved from his desk all day, and partly because Ianto had driven him off from calling it an early night, busy with trying to finish something. 'Go do something useful,' he said. 'This'll be at least another hour.'

So he had. The hub was so huge and vast that no one was quite sure just how far it really went. Even after so many years, there were still odd little pockets of it that kept being discovered. Every leader and every monarch had made additions over the years to serve one purpose or another, and each was constructed and planned in much the same haphazard fashion. Some sections had never been completed, which included, but wasn't limited to, the enormous underground rail tunnel that was meant to traverse the ocean floor all the way to Bristol. That had been Churchhill's idea, to better serve the war effort. Other sections were just large caverns, or series of rooms, but for a purpose as yet undetermined.

The problem with having a place so big was that most of it was either unused or unloved. Ianto was forever complaining about keeping it clean, but even he had surrendered to the fact that if it didn't get regular use, it wasn't getting a regular cleaning. Despite that, it did need to be checked from time to time to make sure there was nothing lurking in those abandoned and barely used spaces.

Given the size, anything could be down there. They'd already uncovered one such creature, living in the deepest depths of the archives. Fortunately it seemed harmless, and more afraid of them than they it. In fact, it was a complete recluse. Ianto had seen it only a handful of times, just a brief glimpse, and described it as looking something like the flying dog creature from the Neverending Story. He'd even named it Gerald. Jack found that amusing, calling it after a former leader of Torchwood, although it seemed fitting since he remembered Gerald as a bit of a softie. Since it seemed to have a taste for chocolate hobnobs and nothing else, happy to live out its days without bothering anyone, Jack was happy to let it coexist with them.

No, what worried him down here were the unfriendly types, who might not be quite so content to remain in their own company. They could be up to anything and none of them would be any the wiser until something went wrong, or they found themselves overrun by a population of creatures that couldn't be contained. Thus the decision to go for a wander and make sure all was well. He didn't need the exercise, only the peace of mind it would bring.

He'd never really noticed how dark it was down here without the lights. Pitch black was actually a very good description. It made him hanker for the old days, when the only source of light had been gas lamps and tallow candles caged in small glass lanterns along the walls, or carried with them. Perhaps they should have kept the old fixtures down here. Then he remembered he didn't have a match on him in any case. Perhaps he should make a suggestion they fit some of those LED lights like the ones you stuck in cupboards under the sink or your potting shed. The kind you pressed on and off as you needed them. Then he did the math on how many they'd need. Cheaper just to get a backup generator that actually worked.

He went for his ever faithful wrist strap, flipping open the panel, and letting it emit a sparse light that was eaten up by the darkness just inches from his arm. It was never going to be enough to light his way, but it did have other uses.

He was connected to the rest of Torchwood's servers, but as he tried to run a diagnostic to figure out the problem, he found himself disconnected. Even their servers were powered down. He tried to bounce a message from his vortex manipulator through the local mobile phone network, but that failed, too. Whatever it was, it was effecting the whole city, not just the hub. It might have been sinister, or it could just be a power grid overloaded by too many people with their smart TVs and iPads.

At some point, Ianto had begun the very ambitious project of labeling and mapping out the entirety of the hub. He already had dozens of copies of blueprints from various decades of Torchwood administration, but none of them quite overlaid in the right way, giving him the complete picture. Some corridors appeared to cross over, whilst others had rooms running right through the middle of them, and there were that to seemed to jut out into the middle of the bay without rhyme or reason, or had gaps in them where there should have been something, but just wasn't. It was thoroughly maddening, forcing him to resort to starting from scratch. He'd spent whole days wandering around with his GPS, trying to create a complete blueprint, before figuring out the best way to go about giving corridors, doors and storage areas different designations. With so many levels and passages, he developed a rather complicated system of colors letters and numbers, before beginning the arduous task of stenciling the new markers on each door and passageway by hand, using spray paint. It was about eighty percent complete, with the remaining twenty percent being areas which Ianto described as "requiring a cut lunch" just to reach. Jack was just grateful he hadn't become lost himself in the process. In the darkness however, all of that very careful numbering system was of no use whatsoever.

Jack took two steps forward before he smacked into a concrete wall. He'd been sure he was still travelling in a straight line, though the dark must have been more disorienting than he expected. Learning from his error, he used his hand to brush the wall, warning him of changes in direction and possible doorways.

He couldn't recall exactly where he was when the power went out, but he was pretty sure he could find his way back. Simple retracing of steps. How hard could it be? He wandered these corridors all the time, and most of the time he never gave a thought to getting lost. His feet always lead him back where he needed to go, and there were dozens of junctions that crossed back on one another. Miss a turn and it wasn't then end of the world. He didn't need a map in his head painted on the walls. It was time agent instincts that gave him a keen sense of direction.

He left his hand drift, finding one doorway after the next, going left, then right, then right again. He remembered a shortcut if he took the next left and went up the stairs. He took the doorway and continued on. When next he brushed past a shut door, he went to grasp the handle only to find it locked. It was a door requiring an access card. In other words, it was the wrong door, expecting a handle that turned without locking. In any case his access card was useless against the powered down reader. He backtracked and tried again, but the more he tried to go back the way he came, the more he found himself in unknown territory. As much as the many junctions gave flexibility to get around, he realised that they could also lead to you sending yourself around in endless circles.

He cursed the people who'd built the place. In some areas there were stairs or lifts separating levels. In others, the floor simply curved up or down, taking you directly from one level to another. The problem was that in order to make it accessible for carting items around, the incline was imperceptible, so there was no knowing by feeling alone whether you were headed up, down or straight ahead. He came to the stark realisation that he now had no idea where he was, the darkness only serving to confuse and confound even more. He didn't panic though. He laughed to himself, thinking that as soon as the power came back on, he was probably standing just feet away from the door that lead back up to the main level of the hub, and that he'd probably passed a dozen more on his travels.

He knew it was foolish to keep trying, but he was also incredibly stubborn. Instead of doors to other passages, he tried a few that were access points for storage. Perhaps if he could find out what was inside he'd have a better idea where he was. Ianto was very much the keeper of all things down here, but Jack had a pretty good idea of what went where. At least the important stuff he did.

In one room he tripped over a mop and got his foot tangled in a bucket, finding space a lot smaller than anticipated. It wasn't a storage room at all, but merely a supplies closet. He'd probably been in here before, looking for a little alone time with his favourite Welshman, but a supplies closet was hardly a memorable fixture. It was a convenient place for some afternoon delight, and that was about it.

In another there was nothing, at least as far as he could discern. Perhaps whatever had been in here had been moved, or maybe the rift had stolen it. That was a disconcerting thought. The rift shouldn't be allowed to take things with the confines of the hub. If that was true, he wouldn't ever let anyone down here for fear the rift might take them. It had been known to dump whole rooms on them, once creating a door that hadn't been there before, but no one had been able to figure out a way to open it and find out what was on the other side. Then a few days later, the door was gone again. Maybe it was the rift, or maybe it was something else. That was why you had to check things out every now and then.

In a third room he found a long wall of tanks full of odd looking specimens that glowed. This must have been one of those rooms where they kept the low maintenance species Ianto often checked on. Things that lived in tanks didn't really excite Jack. Someone in the past had clearly been a collector. He couldn't recall who, but he had his suspicions about someone from the eighties who'd been fascinated by all things weird. He'd been too busy courting Lucia at the time to take much notice of what else went on around Torchwood. He peered closely at a couple of them, noting the strange shapeless bodies, long tentacle appendages and bulbous things which were probably eyes. Whether they were alien or Earth-based was hard to tell. Earth scientists knew so little about the bioluminescent creatures that inhabited the deepest depths of the ocean. Either way, they were here now and not going anywhere. That meant someone had to look after them. He was just glad it wasn't him. Owen probably found them fascinating.

He was half tempted to try and pick up one of the tanks and carry it with him, using it as a light source to try and read the labels on the doors. Two things stopped him. One, a lot of Ianto's labeling system left him for dead. Why he'd never though to upload the hub's schematics to his wrist strap was beyond him. The second reason he decided against it was simply the fact that most of the tanks were too large, and the smaller ones housed creatures so creepy in appearance, Jack wasn't sure he wanted to get any closer than was strictly necessary.

He left the room, unsure he was any clearer on his exact location. Somewhere along the eastern wing he suspected, at least that's where he'd been when the lights had failed him. Assuming he hadn't taken too many wrong turns, he should still be somewhere in the general vicinity. The problem was the lack of defining features in this section. It was one of the reasons he'd come down here, just to check it was as unoccupied as he expected it to be.

He wandered for a while longer, trying his best to head ever upwards. The further down you went, the more spread out and maze like the place became. Moving up through the levels seems to be his best bet for finding his way back. And surely this blackout couldn't last forever. He finally found a set of stairs and made his way up, but then spent the next twenty minutes assured he was going in circles no matter which way he went. Lost in his own hub, he thought. It was embarrassing.

'Jack,' a faint voice called out. Oh, sweet goddesses. He'd never been so glad to hear those perfect Welsh vowels.

'Ianto!' Jack yelled back. 'Down here!'

'And where's here?' He could almost hear the eye rolling in Ianto's voice. What the hell else was he meant to say?

'Here! Just follow my voice,' he yelled.

A tiny ball of light began to bounce around the walls until it became a long white beam instead, throwing its owner into sharp relief, a black outline against its brightness in front of him.

'Finally!' Ianto said, illuminating Jack with his torch, which was overly bright, causing Jack to shield his eyes against it. 'I've been looking for you for hours. All of Cardiff is in a blackout. I tried calling you but the phone network is down as well. As are our servers, GPS network, life signs detectors. Western Power has a lot to answer for.'

'If our servers are down, how did you managed to find me? It's not like you have a copy of a map of the hub.'

'Eidetic memory, Jack. I know every corridor and storeroom. I was trying to work my way down systematically, hoping you had enough sense to stay on one spot.'

Oh, he hadn't thought of that. If he'd kept moving, it might have taken days for them to find one another. Bless Ianto's clever thinking.

'You know it's quite creepy down here when it's dark,' Jack said.

'Tell me about it. Sometimes it feels that way even when it's lit,' Ianto replied. 'You didn't find anything down here that shouldn't be?'

'Not that I know of,' Jack replied. He supposed that in the blackness, anything could have been there. Fortunately if there had been, it was merely curious as to what oddity happened to be sharing the darkness with it.

Ianto handed Jack a torch.

'What, is this in case we get split up again?'

'No, that's in case my torch runs out of battery. Who knows how long this blackout might last, and I don't want to get lost down here in the dark.'

'Afraid?' Jack joked.

Ianto scoffed. 'Underground I can handle. Dark is fine, too. Just don't put them together. I still have nightmares about that school trip to the colliery. I'll feel better once we're back up in the main hub.'

'Never fear,' Jack said, wrapping his arm around Ianto's elbow. 'I'll keep you safe from the monsters lurking in the dark.'

Ianto gave him a playful shove. 'That's what worries me.'