Anythingdrabble Challenge 29 - Starting over

[m_findlow]

Title: Starting over
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Tosh
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 29 - Process at anythingdrabble
Summary: Jack is having to re-learn the art of team dynamics.

Learning to be patient was harder than Jack remembered. He wasn't used to having anyone around him to help him manage Torchwood. Ever since Alex had left the place in disarray, he'd been making do running things on his own.

For the most part that had been fine. Cardiff had a rift and sometimes stuff got spat out of it that had to be checked out. There was also the occasional weevil that decided to go walkabout, and that was fine too. Jack could handle that. Torchwood One didn't like it, but that was tough. They'd have preferred no one here, rather than just him, but the rift needed an eye kept on it, so they were stuck with him. That's when they started playing dirty. If Jack was going to insist on running Cardiff's operations, then they were going to treat him like any other branch, demanding this report or that budget. They'd bury him in admin until he gave up, replacing him with their own team.

Instead Jack called their bluff. He'd set up his own team, share the load, and really get up their noses. Not that he'd rush things. Recruiting for Torchwood wasn't like any other job. He needed the right people with the right skills. When Tosh's dossier came up from UNIT's prison records, he was all over it.

Working with someone else after so long was strange. He'd had his own way of doing things, ad hoc as it was. Now he needed to be a little bit more nine to five. Other people didn't have his knowledge. He knew about stuff that was out there in the universe, and stuff that didn't yet exist in this time line. Trying to explain that to someone else, even a genius like Toshiko was testing at times. He couldn't just dump a piece of tech on her desk and expect her to know what it was and how to fix it. Even when he explained the basic principles, she took her time. She had her own process when it came to all things technical, looking at it from all angles, stopping to think about what it was conceptually designed to do, before analyzing the constituent parts in detail. Part of it drove Jack mad. He wanted it fixed yesterday whereas Tosh wanted to study it before attempting any repairs.

He supposed it wasn't just differing personalities. He could walk into any situation, take a crack at disarming an alien bomb and if it didn't work out, well, it wasn't as if he could die permanently. Tosh on the other hand wasn't so physically gifted.

Jack was the gung-ho hero type but Tosh was a scientist at heart. Computer code fascinated her in the same way Jack got a kick out of throwing himself headlong into danger. It was a strange combination for his fledgling team, but as the months wore on, they each got used to one another's unique way of working, forming a solid partnership.

Comments

[bk_forever]

They're two very different people, but that's why they work well together. Jack needs to build up a team of people with different skill sets in order to cover all the things the job throws at them. It's no good having a bunch of peiople who all share one skill. Tosh's talents complement Jack's.