Anythingdrabble Challenge 112 - Substitute teacher

[m_findlow]

Title: Substitute teacher
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Gwen, Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 112 - Children at anythingdrabble
Summary: Jack is having trouble getting his usual charms to work.

Jack looked around at the twenty kids clustered around their campsite. Their teacher had a run in with something that came through the rift and was now nothing more than body bag filler, as was the alien that Jack's team had hunted down and killed. That left them with a massive babysitting problem.

'Okay, so what we're going to do is this,' Jack announced.

'Why are you wearing such a funny looking coat? Don't you have a parka for when you go camping?'

'It's not funny looking,' Jack replied, thrown by the question. 'It's fine. So, the SUV is parked just over the other side of those hills.'

'We came here in a bus. How are we all going to fit? Did the bus driver forget about us?'

'The bus driver will meet us there, and-'

'Hey, is that a real gun? Could you show us? Mrs Spencer said we were going to do archery practice. You could let us have a go with that instead.'

Jack tensed. 'Nobody is using the gun. Guns are dangerous.'

'So, why do you have one?'

'To protect myself against monsters.'

'Monsters? Is that what got Mrs Spencer? Is it coming for us, too?'

'There's no monster.'

'Did you kill it? Can we see it?'

Jack sighed. 'No. Now-'

'Mister,' a small girl said, tugging on his coat. 'I need to go.'

'We're all going,' he assured her.

'No, I mean I need to go.'

'Oh. Um, just use that tree over there,' he said, pointing. 'I'll be right back.' He jogged over to his two companions who had so far been of no help whatsoever. 'A little help, please?'

'But you're doing such a good job,' Gwen teased.

'Really bonding with those kids,' Ianto agreed.

'You'd think that Jack would be better at this given he's not that emotionally age removed from children. They should understand one another perfectly.'

Ianto smirked. 'You would think so, wouldn't you?'

'I am not a child!' Jack fumed.

'Yet your petulant behaviour would suggest otherwise.'

'Alright!' Gwen yelled out. 'Who here likes ice-cream?' Twenty hands shot up in the air in an instant.

'Excellent. So, whilst we're waiting for the bus to arrive to take us all home, the man with the ice-cream van promised he'd be there to meet us.'

'He did?' Ianto asked, before getting a look from Gwen. 'Right, of course he did,' he said, stepping away and taking his phone out to make the necessary arrangements.

'Now, it's a big hike, so I need you all to pair up and hold hands so that you don't lose your partner. Go grab your backpacks. Are we ready?'

'Yeah!'

'Okay, then. Everybody follow me.' A line of ten pairs of kids snaked after her, chatting excitedly about what flavour ice-cream they were going to pick.

'Ice-cream van is on it way,' Ianto reported.

'How'd she do that?' Jack asked, flummoxed and scratching his head.

'I think they call it maternal instinct,' Ianto replied. 'Or bribery.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

I'd say the bribery was the deciding factor. Most kids will do almost anything for ice cream.