m_findlow

Title: Digging yourself out
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Owen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 300 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Advent Calendar Day 16 - Picture (Okay, son... There's no app for this) at fffc
Summary: Owen discovers a really good reason for helping Ianto.

'Owen!' Jack called out.

'What?' he replied, not taking his eyes off his phone as he lounged back in his chair, feet resting on the desk.

'I need you to give Ianto a hand.' Jack walked across, carrying with him a heavy looking shovel.

'What's that for?'

Jack rolled his eyes. 'For shoveling snow, of course,' he said. 'Ianto needs a hand clearing the snow that's piling up around the hub's exit points. The water tower and the tourist office entrance are particularly bad because the snow is just piling up with nowhere to go.'

'It's like ten below out there,' Owen grumbled.

'I know. That would be why it's snowing.'

Owen looked down at his phone and groaned, trying to figure out how to weasel his way out of it. 'Can't Tosh invent some system that melts snow? If we can have automated door locks...'

'Sorry,' Jack said. 'There's no magic alien device, fifty-first century tech or an app on your phone that's going to solve the problem. It's just down to good old manual labour, I'm afraid.'

Owen grimaced at the shovel. 'How come you're not helping?'

'I have a call with the PM. And just look at these hands. They don't shovel.'

'It's just a bit of snow,' Owen argued. 'Teaboy can shunt it around. I doubt it needs two people. Probably not even enough to build a snowman. What's the worst that could happen?'

'Well, your alternative is that we let the snow accumulate around all of the exits and we all get stuck in here for the next three days. I mean, I'm okay with that. Ianto and I can entertain ourselves with hours of naked hide and seek, but-'

'Yeah, I'm going,' Owen said, cutting him off and snatching the shovel from his hands.