m_findlow

Title: Left in charge
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,021 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for fffc May Special Daily Challenge - May 24th - P.S. I hate you (Winter Renshaw)
Summary: Owen isn't having nearly as much fun as he thought he would.

Jack turned over in the bed and wrapped an arm around his husband under the duvet, trying to get a glimpse of what his lover was doing. 'What are you chuckling at over there?' he asked, nuzzling the light stubble that had accumulated on Ianto's face since yesterday.

'Nothing,' Ianto said, setting his phone on the bedside table and turning around so that he could properly enjoy Jack's embrace. This getting away on a holiday business was actually a lot more enjoyable than he expected, and they hadn't even reached the halfway point of their three week break. It was like a second honeymoon, and he wondered now why they hadn't started taking breaks more often. The team were perfectly capable of handling things without them it seemed. Well, for the most part, he thought, another little smile playing unconsciously across his face.

'Okay, what's got you so amused?' Jack teased. 'I know it wasn't the weather forecast you were checking out,' he added. 'You need to stop worrying about Torchwood and just let them get on with things. This is meant to be a vacation.'

Jack had been very strict about them bring any kind of work with them, even if it was only checking emails or calling in to get an update. Unless the world was truly ending, the told the rest of the team that under no circumstances were they to call. Getting Ianto to relax was a whole project in itself and he'd finally managed it. He didn't need someone going and undoing all that hard work.

'I was just reading an email from Owen,' Ianto replied, sliding his own arm around Jack and pulling him closer. 'It was highly entertaining.'

'Oh, was it now? Is he enjoying being in charge?'

'Well, let me put it this way,' Ianto said, rubbing noses with Jack like an Eskimo kiss, 'when he said he needed a break from London, I don't think he meant a return to Cardiff.'

Jack grinned at that. He'd been heading up their medical research facility in London for the best part of a year now. With Gwen posted over in the US assisting Rex with a recruitment drive to get their American offices properly set up, Owen was the next best placed to head up Cardiff whilst they took their own much needed break. It wasn't that the rest of their team couldn't manage it - Johnson had leadership skills in spades, and Jez was equally capable, but for peace of mind, it was nice to know an old hand was keeping an eye on things. 'So, what did he have to say for himself?'

'You can read it if you like,' Ianto said, detangling himself from Jack for a moment to reach back for his phone. He brought up the message and handed it to Jack before snuggling back under the covers, watching Jack's blue eyes flick from left to right.

For the most part there was nothing unusual in Owen's correspondence, just his usual moaning tirade. 'Why am I not surprised he can't find the right paperwork?'

'It's all filed away in logical order,' Ianto replied.

'But Owen's even more useless at administration than me.' He didn't like to admit it, but Ianto's filing system left even him for dead some days.

'Thus why I've tried to make it idiot proof. I have you as my ongoing test subject to prove if my system is working,' Ianto teased.

'Oh, oops,' Jack said, reading the part where Owen had forgotten to put the tentacula odorinetae into isolation during its spawning season. It was a feature of the hothouse that sported the most spectacular orange flowers, beautifully perfumed, and which often left you a little bit giddy and happy, or in Jack's case, ridiculously amorous. It was a plant that had both male and female parts, happy to fertilise its own flowers, however the male component when in spawning smelled worse than a hundred rotting corpses. Before it started, it was always schedule to be placed in a specifically designed containment unit, just until the fertilization process was complete. 'That's going to have stunk up the hub for days.'

'He should have remembered,' Ianto replied. 'It's been there since even before I started working there. Owen knows its spawn cycles better than anyone.'

'Well, at least it'll be in bloom by the time we get back. Maybe a little quiet time for us up in the hothouse when we get back? Admiring the flora?' Jack added, the suggestion clear. He intended on admiring only one thing and it wasn't the plant life.

'Down boy,' Ianto said. 'You'll get plenty of that whilst we're in holiday.'

The rest was pretty uneventful despite Owen's colorful language and descriptions. The team knew and respected Owen, even if they'd worked very little with him directly. Stories of his endeavors when he'd been one of the original team members had become the stuff of legend,even if Jack thought they'd become a little too embellished with the passage of time. Grumpy as he might still be, they knew he knew the job and how to coordinate the team, albeit Ianto had done a lot of work to ensure that for the most part it ran itself. Only their functions insofar as monitoring the rift remained the ad-hoc part of the job, most of which Jack managed the way he always had. Owen was more than a match for that aspect, even if the wider remit of managing global operations remained out of his field of expertise. Tosh would have been a much better fit for Ianto's job if it came to that, but it was only three weeks. Owen would be fine.

Jack finished skimming the rest of the email, finally spotting the last line that had made his lover so amused. "P. S. I hate you."

'Nice to see some things never change,' Jack said, tossing the phone away and pulling the covers over their heads. 'The world hasn't ended yet. What's say we extend out holiday by another week? I'm sure Owen won't mind. He hates us already.'