m_findlow

Title: Pre-flight checks
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen, Rhys
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 552 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, Stuck in a mile long queue" at fic_promptly
Summary: Their honeymoon isn't off to the relaxing start they'd hoped for.

They'd only been on vacation five minutes and already Rhys was in one of his moaning moods. Not quite ranting yet, but given time, Gwen was sure he'd get there.

Perhaps they should have known better than to try and get a Monday morning flight. Everyone wanted to be at the airport on a Monday morning though, people heading somewhere on business, important meetings and conferences, backpackers from Canada and the States on their way to their next destination, and the odd holidaymakers like themselves who'd just not thought it through very well.

It was six am but the queue was a least a mile long and seemingly not going anywhere as it snaked from left to right and back again.

'D'you know what I don't get, Gwennie?' Rhys said. 'All these people are here waiting patiently in line, yet when there's ten minutes before boarding, anyone who arrives late is allowed to just bloody jump the queue and go straight through. I mean, never mind that the rest of us were here four hours early. You just show up at the last minute and come on through. Deserve to miss their flight, they do.'

She couldn't disagree. It did seem unfair. She'd been late to plenty of places but she'd never been given the red carpet treatment on account of it. She watched as an entire bus load of people came tumbling through the doors, and lead straight to the check-in counters whilst their tour guide made sure they were all accounted for.

'Sodding hell,' Rhys muttered. 'That's going to add another twenty minutes wait. By the time this queue dies down, it'll be our flight they'll be calling. I was looking forward to a bit of breakfast before we had to go.'

Yes, so had she. After the wedding on Saturday and all the chaos that had ensued from that, through to the Sunday morning sleep in, driving back to their flat in Cardiff and frantically finishing their packing, there'd been little time for food or sleep. Now they were stuck here in the queue that never seemed to get shorter.

She cursed the fact that she didn't have access to the Torchwood mainframe on her phone. Jack had made sure she wouldn't be able to be interrupted by whatever was going on back home, for which she'd been grateful, but now all she wanted was to be able to hack the booking system, checking them aboard their flight and confirming their seats. There was still the matter of their luggage however. What she really needed was a way to get their flight called early. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed.

'Hi, Ianto. Yes, good, thank you. No, we're fine. Just need a little favour if that's okay.'

Two minutes later there was the pinging bells of the PA system tinkling overhead.

"Could Mr and Mrs Rhys Williams please make themselves known to staff and head to the check-in desk?"

'Hey, that's us, Gwen!' Rhys cried, gleefully grabbing the handle of his suitcase and dragging it across. 'Oi, mate! That's us!' he called to one of the queue controllers.

Gwen smiled and tapped out a quick thanks on her phone.

"No problem," came the reply. "Hope you don't mind we upgraded you to first class. :)"