m_findlow | BTBD Challenge 100

Title: Shining through
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,042 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Amnesty and Challenge 100 - Shine at beattheblackdog
Summary: Ianto has lost something precious.

Ianto flipped through the box of items, growing ever more frustrated that he couldn't find the one thing he desperately needed to find. How it had disappeared in the first place was still a mystery, but that didn't matter right now. If he didn't find it, Jack was going to kill him.

Sodding hell! He'd never lost anything before. Why of all the times to start did it have to be his wedding ring that had gone AWOL? He knew he'd had it on this morning, and he'd been down in the archives all day. He wasn't even sure that he'd noticed the moment it had slipped off his hand. He was so use to it just being there that he didn't give it much thought. The random glance had simply triggered something in his brain that said something wasn't right, and lo and behold, it was gone.

He slipped the lid off the second box and began pawing through its contents. It just had to be here somewhere!

He spent ages looking for it, retracing his steps, but then Jack called him to come and join the rest of the team to head out on a rift alert. It annoyed him that he had to abandon his search before he'd found it, and now he'd have to leave. He only hoped Jack would be too busy to notice it was missing.

No such luck. For reasons Ianto was still unable to fathom, Jack had generously given him driving duties, which were effected by the sudden calling out his name and the keys that came flying at this head. He only just caught them, reflexes kicking in more than the conscious decision to protect his face.

They'd only been in the car given minutes before Jack spied the conspicuously bare left hand resting on the steering wheel.

'Where's your ring?'

Ianto mentally cursed. Did he have to say it out loud with everyone else in the car? He felt stupid enough as it was. 'I left it in the archives,' Ianto said, twisting the truth.

'Why would you do that?'

'Because we had to leave and there wasn't time to go and fetch it to put it back on.'

'But why would you take it off in the first place?' Jack persisted.

He wanted to lie and say something clever like that he was dealing with something potentially corrosive, or that it was something which didn't react well to certain metals. Even so, he would have taken it off reluctantly. Part of him knew it was silly, but he wanted it to stay right where it was, remembering that Jack had put it there and that there was no good reason on earth why it should ever come off after that. He loved Jack, and his wedding band was a pleasant reminder that his own place in Jack's heart was permanent.

'Ianto?' Jack said, waiting for an answer.

'I lost it in the archives, alright? I was still looking for it when you decided to rudely interrupt me.'

Jack's reaction was predictably annoyed. 'You lost it? How could you be so careless?'

'I wasn't careless!' He was suitably irritated that Jack would think that. He could feel the eyes of the other three people behind him, waiting for it to blow up into a proper argument. He wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. 'I know it's down there, it's not lost, and once we've got whatever this is out of the way I can go back and retrieve it. Is that okay?'

The dissatisfied little grunt from the passenger seat told Ianto all he needed to know about Jack's view on the matter, and the little reflexive play with his own wedding band spoke volumes.

Once they arrived at the scene, things seemed to go from bad to worse. The small mole-like creature was creating havoc in a local fish and chip shop kitchen. It was lightning fast, and aided by the fact that that it had upturned a large cannister of frying oil that made the entire floor slippery. Their usually keen coordination was sorely tested as they slipped and slid around, trying to get a hold of it, but it continued to elude them, in what became a comedy of errors, catching each other more often than they did the creature. After much falling and cursing, it was Jack's who finally nabbed the critter, scooping it into a chip fryer basket. He glared around at his team who were mainly crumpled on the floor at all angles, unable to get their feet back under them.

'What's wrong with you lot, today?' he said. 'You'd think you'd never captured an alien before.'

'Didn't see you faring too well,' Owen griped, holding the back of his head where a large bruise was forming from when he'd fallen backward and whacked it on the edge of a deep fryer.

'At least I caught it before it escaped. Maybe if you'd kept a better eye on it,' he added, but directing his comments at Ianto, who was trying to towel off the worst of the oil that had seeped through his clothes, but knowing they were probably ruined now, anyway. Instinctively he knew it wasn't the creature Jack was referring to.

'Whatever,' Owen grumbled. 'Can we go now?'

Ianto fussed more than was strictly necessary before letting them all get back in the car, making sure they had towels to sit on. The last thing he wanted was oil stains seeping into the leather. He fussed most around Jack, insisting he take his coat off, which would avoid most of the oil. When Jack initially balked, Ianto refused to drive them anywhere until he did as he was told, which only annoyed Jack more.

'A shame you weren't this careful earlier,' he sniped. 'More worried about the SUV than your wedding ring.'

'I will find the bloody ring, Jack, but not until I get back to the hub, so just shut up and get in the bloody car!' His outburst had the desired effect, silencing not only Jack, but everyone else as well.

His foul mood persisted all the way home, and all the way down to the archives where he began banging and crashing things about in his continued search, if only to prevent him from doing that same amount of physical damage to Jack. Moreover, he was annoyed at himself for losing it in the first place.

He heard Tosh call out as he was rifling loudly through a crate of knick knacks.

'Over here,' he called back.

She spared him a sympathetic frown, understanding that the amount of noise he was making mirrored his frustration and signaled that he hadn't yet found his ring. 'Thought I'd give you a hand,' she said.

'Thanks, Tosh. That's really sweet of you.'

'Ianto?' Gwen's voice rang out from the end of the aisle. She spotted the two sets of torchlights and followed them.

'Did you need something?' Ianto asked.

'Just to come help you find your ring. I know Jack's mad but that can't be helping matters. I'd be devastated if I lost my ring.'

Ianto set his torch down on the shelf and put his hands on his hips. 'Well, it's definitely down here somewhere,' he said. 'It's just a shame that I spent most of the morning down here going from one end of the archives to another, re-sorting a huge box of stuff that had been on my to do list for ages. It makes the search area a little bigger than I'd like.'

'Well, there's three of us now, so that should speed things up.'

'Four,' Owen replied, coming into view.

Ianto blinked. 'Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Owen Harper?'

'Sod off, Teaboy. I'm here to help so stop your whining.'

'Yes, but the question is why?'

'Cause when you're in the doghouse with the boss, so are the rest of us.'

After their earlier debacle, Ianto didn't hold high hopes for them making any headway. He was surprised however by the organisation they showed, setting up a plan of attack. Gwen suggested he map out each area he'd remembered being in, and Tosh brought up the log of boxes and crates and their locations, designating them each an area to search. He knew it seemed silly but he was immensely proud of them. They had their bad days, but when the chips were down, they really knew how to band together. This was when they really shone, working together towards a common goal. He wished Jack could see them now.

'I think I found it!' Gwen cried out for anyone who was within earshot.

Fortunately Ianto heard her and came over. She had her torch trained on something inside a very large wooden crate. Ianto peered over the edge and saw the small object shining back. 'I think you may be right,' he said.

'I tried to reach in, but my arm isn't long enough.'

Ianto leaned over the edge of the crate, reaching in as far as he could, but even his fingertips came nowhere near touching the bottom.

Once Owen and Tosh arrived, they began carefully unpacking the crate until it was light enough that Ianto and Owen could tip it forward to remove the rest, finally laying it on its side to retrieve the tiny ring tucked right in the corner. He gratefully slipped it back on where it belonged.

'I have no idea how it got all the way down there,' he said.

'Probably this,' Tosh said, picking up a small cylindrical unit that had been near the top of the crate. 'It's capable of creating a strong magnetic field. You might have accidentally activated it and its magnetic force pulled the ring clean off.'

'Still annoying that I didn't even notice it, though.'

'It's very strong,' Tosh replied. 'Would have happened pretty quickly I imagine.'

'Well, at least we found it,' Owen said. 'I know why I hate coming down here. It's dark and dusty you never know when you might accidentally touch something that removes a limb.'

'I'm fairly sure all limb removing technology is kept in secure archives,' Ianto replied, 'but thank you all the same for helping.'

'Don't mention it,' Tosh said. 'What are friends for?'

'Fix us a round of coffee and jammie dodgers and we'll call it even,' Owen said.

One very late afternoon tea later and Ianto was back down in the archives at his desk, working on a spreadsheet of items for cataloging when there was a gentle knocking at the edge of the doorway. He looked up and saw Jack standing there.

'Hey.'

'Hey yourself,' Jack replied.

'Need something?' He couldn't be sure what kind of mood Jack was in. He just hoped he wasn't about to get another lecture.

'I felt bad about how I reacted earlier. I know you'd never be careless.'

'That's true,' Ianto carefully replied. Mostly, he thought.

Jack took the insinuation with sheepish acceptance. 'So, I was thinking maybe I'd come down here and help you look for it. To be fair, I won't be able to sleep knowing it's lost.'

'No need,' Ianto replied, holding up his hand to show his ring right back where it should be.

'You found it?'

'With a little help. Turns out some technology down here might have been a little jealous and stolen it right off my finger.'

After he'd put it back on, he'd briefly removed it to give it a bit of a polish with a cloth he had in his drawer for metal items. Now it was as perfect and shiny as the day he'd first had it put on his hand. Even in the darkness of the archives, there was no way he could miss it now, and he intended on checking it far more regularly.

'It looks a lot better there,' Jack said.

'I couldn't agree more.'

'And as for this jealous technology,' Jack added, 'which technological kneecaps do I need to break?'

'Oh, now who's jealous?' Ianto laughed.

'You're mine, Ianto Jones. That ring on your finger proves it. Anyone even thinks about it, they've gotta go through me first.'

BTBD Challenge 100 - Shining through

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