BTBD Challenge 126 - Lead foot

[m_findlow]

Title: Lead foot
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen, Owen, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: M
Length: 1,299 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 126 - Rattle at beattheblackdog
Summary: Owen has pushed the SUV beyond its limits.

The bump of the car over the rocky terrain made Gwen's teeth bang together. So much for that superior suspension the SUV was supposed to have, she thought. Or perhaps it was worn down by years of misuse, its current driver only making the problem worse. In fact, it wasn't just the feel of the car, but rather the sound it was making.

'I don't think it's meant to make that noise, Owen,' Gwen said, verbalising the thought. She watched him carefully from the passenger seat as he thrashed the SUV along the windy mountain roads. Some of the gear changes were painful to listen to, Owen having switched the car from auto to manual to navigate the difficult terrain. Despite the difficult conditions, she was sure that some of those gear changes had attributed to the sound she could now hear. It was like something in the engine had come loose, a piece of metal dislodged from its correct spot, now rattling in an annoyed fashion, as if it too were unhappy with Owen's driving.

'What noise?' Owen replied. 'I can't hear anything.' He crunched another gear up and floored the accelerator, forcing the SUV up the steep valley incline, ignoring the signs that suggested a thirty mile speed limit. The clacking of metal continued, like some kind of bullroarer, before there was a sickening crack and screech of metal on metal. Owen gripped the wheel hard as the car lurched, applying the brakes hard and somehow pulling it safely over to the grassy embankment on the narrow road.

'Bollocks,' Owen muttered, snapping back the handbrake.

'Well, that's done it,' Gwen said. 'I did try to warn you.'

'Shut it, PC Cooper. Not my fault, was it?'

He jumped out of the car and threw up the front hood, inspecting it for damage. Gwen stayed in the car and watched on with bemusement. Owen was about as likely to know the carburetor from the spark plugs as she was to be able to tell the difference between the spleen and the appendix. 'Men,' she muttered, knowing it was an act of saving face to appear to know how to fix cars. After a few minutes, he slammed the black hood back down and got back in the car.

'Diagnosis?' Gwen asked.

'We're fucked.'

Gwen took that to mean Owen had no idea what was wrong with it.

Owen pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and held it to his ear.

'Who are you calling?'

'Ianto. Get him to get us a ride out of here or something.' Ianto answered on the third ring. 'Yeah, we've broken down,' Owen said, not bothering with the preamble of "hi, how are you?" or anything to that effect.

'Run out of pertol, did you?' came the reply.

'Very funny. It's the engine that's conked out. How'd you like to be stuck out here?'

'And what do you want me to do about it? I can't exactly pop the hood and take a look can I?'

'Well, call roadside assist or something. Just be useful.'

'And you couldn't have called them yourself?' The phone hung up on him without answering.  

'Stupid arse,' Owen muttered.

'Says the man who just hung up on the one person who could help us.' Gwen pulled out her own phone and dialled again. 'Ianto? Yeah, sorry about that. Listen, yes, yes, I know he's a pillock,' she said, grinning and giving Owen a glare, 'but do you suppose you could trace the GPS tracker and get someone out here to take a look?' She paused and listened to the question. 'Well, it was making a kind of funny rattling sound every time we slowed to brake around the hairpin bends. Then when we were headed up a steep hill, something screeched and sounded like it broke. Yes, Owen was driving in manual.' She listened intently. 'He says you probably snapped the gear chain, Owen.'

'Well, that's fucking helpful.'

Gwen rolled her eyes at the response and continued listening. 'Uh huh. Okay. Sure. We can try that. Hang on a few minutes and I'll call you back.'

'More helpful advice?' Owen asked. 'Like stick you thumb out and hope someone comes along in the next three days that will give us a lift back to civilisation? God I hate the fucking countryside.'

'Ianto says there's a chance that the engine computer hasn't been affected by the snapped gear chain. He says to switch the car back out of manual, deactivate the sports mode, put the thing in neutral and try starting it up again.'

Owen grumbled under his breath. Something along the lines of "could've suggested that when I called", begrudgingly following the instructions. He twisted the key in the lock and heard the engine turn over and idle, a low rumble as it sat in neutral. 'Well, what do you know?' Owen said, half surprised.

Gwen redialled. 'Ianto, you're a gem. We got it going again.' She sat there as he gave her a few more careful instructions. 'Will do. See you in a few hours.'

Owen gave her a curious look. 'What was that all about?'

'Just a warning to keep it at a low speed. The automatic gear controls will work so long as we don't continue to shift gears too often.'

'Great. All we have to do is navigate all the way back to Cardiff without going up or down any more mountains. Piece of piss.'

The heads-up display pinged at them, and on it a map showing them a route back to the hub that sent them all over the place on tiny back roads, but which seemed to keep them at a relatively flat level, skirting around the edges of the valleys, rather than the more direct commercial route that would force them straight, winding ever up and down the valleys. Bless Ianto, Gwen thought.

'That's going to take us twice as long to get home,' Owen complained.

'But at least we might make it,' Gwen countered.

 

Gwen felt sorry for the SUV once Owen finally managed to roll it into the underground car park. It had done a job under difficult circumstances, no question, and now deserved a reprieve from Owen, as did she. Ianto was waiting there for them when they arrived, a welcoming look for Gwen and an annoyed look for Owen.

'Been waiting long?' Owen asked. He hoped Ianto would say he'd been standing there ages.

'Just got here. You didn't manage to break the GPS, after all. I knew exactly where you were and when  you'd arrive. As for the rest of the poor car,' he said, letting the sentence hang.

'Yeah, yeah. So tell me, how did you suddenly become an expert on cars?'

Ianto gave him a knowing look. 'Jack does it all the time, even though I've told him to stop driving like a maniac. I got sick of the insurance going up every time we had an emergency callout. Last time I just happened to be with him when it happened. I may have greased the palm of the last mechanic who came out to fix it and found out about that little workaround.'

'So, it's not my fault it broke then?'

'I didn't say that. I'll still have to take it to get the gearbox fixed, again.'

'Well, we're grateful for the insider knowledge,' Gwen said, effusive with praise. 'It's better than being stranded.'

'Agreed,' Ianto replied. 'Trust me when I say that being stuck in the middle of nowhere with Jack for four hours isn't as fun as it sounds. The first hour is fine, but even Jack's refractory period isn't that good.'

Owen shoved his fingers in his ears and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. 'Please stop talking now!'

Comments

[bk_forever]

*slaps Owen* It wouldn't kill you to say thank you to the man who just helped you to get home.

Ianto is a gem, and he really does know everything.