Torchwood: Fanfic: Morning madness

[m_findlow]

Title: Morning madness
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Suzie, Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,192 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, Bewildered" at fic_promptly
Summary: Suzie should be used to abnormal by now.

Suzie almost jumped out of her skin when her pathway was suddenly blocked by a young man standing right in it.

'Hello,' he said, giving her a little wave and a nervous smile.

'Er, hello?' she replied, unsure if it was a statement or a question that fell from her lips. She was accustomed to a lot of weird things at Torchwood, but coming in to find strange people there was unusual to say the least. 'I,' she began, pointing a finger at him, 'um... just... stay here for a minute, would you?'

'Okay.' His unperturbed response to her request left her feeling unsettled. She'd expected defiance or at least argument or a question as to why. He didn't even ask her who she was. She sidestepped him, the door to Jack's office right in her line of sight as she strode purposefully towards it. Thankfully the one person she wanted to see was in there, standing a few feet from his desk and seemingly lost in thought as he scratched his chin.

'Morning,' Suzie greeted, before closing the gap between them.

Jack turned, look distracted. 'Oh, hey Suze.'

'Are you aware that there is a man standing just out there?'

'Yep.'

'Oh.' She wasn't sure why that came as a surprise. Of course Jack should know there was a complete stranger in his hub. What kind of a leader would he be if he didn't? 'Who is he?' She heard stories about Torchwood auditors who just arrived unannounced from all over time to check that Torchwood was still meeting its mandate. The man outside did look rather like an auditor with his neatly pressed suit. Was this one of those times, and was that why Jack was looking so perplexed?

Jack gave a deep sighing breath. 'Ianto Jones.'

Creases formed on Suzie's forehead as she tried to grapple with Jack's response. 'Is that supposed to meant something to me?'

'He's that kid from Torchwood One I was telling you about.'

'What?' Suzie sputtered. 'And you just let him in the front door?'

'Well, actually we were in the SUV, so technically we came in through the back door.'

She leaned back so that she could get a clear line of sight through Jack's office doorway, checking if the young man was standing there listening to her every word. Instead he just seemed to be following her order, standing right where she'd left him, simply looking about the place with a critical eye. What was it he thought he was looking at anyway? The rift machine in all likelihood, she decided. Torchwood One had always envied them the one piece of technology that couldn't be removed and transported back to London for analysis. Jack told them it was critical to keeping the rift in check and that there was no way on this earth they could have it. He wouldn't even let them inside to study it and that rankled them even more.

'Have you lost your mind, Jack?' she hissed. 'He's Torchwood One.' Jack hated everything about Torchwood One and what they stood for. Why the hell would he bring one of them in here? God knew only a handful of them survived their own arrogant stupidity, but that didn't mean they had a right to come in here and carry on as if nothing had happened. 'You told me you were getting rid of him.'

'And I was,' Jack said, getting his back up at the insinuation. 'And then...'

He'd told her all about him being followed to the weevil sighting the other night - stalked was the word Jack had used - and then again when he'd been standing outside their supposedly secret entrance to the hub down by the quay, offering Jack a cup of coffee that may or may not have been drugged. He'd been even more vexed when the young man had promised he'd be back again the same time tomorrow. Honestly, Suzie had thought, take a hint. We don't want you. No amount of hovering at their door was going to change that. Only clearly something had.

'And then?'

Jack looked a little sheepish, shoving his hands deep inside his pockets. 'He sort of... helped out with a little problem.'

'A little problem?' She knew it sounded desperate, repeating his own words back at him, but since when was Jack coy about saying what was on his mind? She took another look at the man. He was tall and lean, clean cut and well presented. Much too uppity white collar for her liking but - oh, it was all making sense now. Jack never could help himself when it came to a pretty face, God help them.

A sudden screech ripped through the hub and instinctively Suzie ducked, before scanning the room for the closest firearm. She clocked Jack's webley on his desk and reached for it, beating him to it by a mile and swinging it around defensively. 'What was that?'

Jack brushed past her, not demonstrating the same level of panic. 'Ianto!' he called out.

'I think maybe that second dose of sedative has worn off, sir,' he replied, keeping his eyes fixed skyward towards the roof of the hub.

'Okay, see if you can find Owen and get him to up the dosage. Try the hothouse, he's probably in there having a nap. Mind you how he can sleep through this racket is anybody guess. I want her docile, not freaking out and destroying everything in sight.'

'On it,' the efficient young man said, quickly disappearing up the stairs.

Suzie followed Jack out of his office, keeping the firearm cocked and ready. 'What the hell is going on, Jack?'

There was another screech and this time Suzie felt a giant shadow cast over her. She looked up and saw two great wings pass overhead. 'What the hell? Is that a-'

'Suzie Costello, meet our little problem,' Jack said, pointing up. Unless her eyes were deceiving her - and after having spent half the night trying to drain a reservoir in search of the other half of a proton disabler gun - it would hardly surprise her, but it looked like the thing that had just swooped overhead was a pterodactyl.

'He helped you with that?' she replied, staring incredulously at the flying dinosaur as it swooped again and then settled on the platform just beneath the invisible lift opening to Roald Dahl Plass high up above them.

'Hell of a job interview, huh?' Jack asked, his line of sight following the young man up the spiral staircase, and dragging a grumpy looking Owen out to inspect his handiwork. 'I was thinking we might keep him.'

Suzie raised both eyebrows at her boss. 'Keep a dinosaur?'

'No, I meant Ianto. Although, if Owen can ever get through doses right and keep her settled, maybe we'll keep her too. Not like we can donate her to a zoo.'

Suzie's eyes darted from dinosaur to the former Torchwood London operative and back again. 'This job just never stops getting weirder, does it?' A dinosaur she could live with, but she'd keep an extra careful eye on anyone from Torchwood One.

Comments

[mscatmoon.livejournal.com]

A bit ironic for Suzie to be commenting on anyone's arrogant stupidity. This was a good look at Ianto's first hours in the Hub.

[bk_forever]

I love how calm and unruffled Ianto appears, although inside he must be anything but. Also love Suzie's reactions and Jack, like he's not entirely sure how any of this happened, lol!