Torchwood: Fanfic: Stowaway

[m_findlow]

Title: Stowaway
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,828 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, Dogged determination" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack is confounded trying to fix their latest guest's spaceship.

A ship coming crashing through the rift was not unusual, though having survivors was always a bonus, even if they weren't always so happy about the situation. Their latest visitors however were extremely grateful for whatever assistance Torchwood could offer. And so they rightly should have been, since their ship was so large it had taken the careful driving of two of Rhys' largest trucks side by side, to cart the cloaked ship back to Cardiff.

The logistics were a nightmare, using the ship's limited power to levitate it high enough to park it halfway inside the first truck, before opening up the side panels on the second, taking the balance of it. Even then, they had to use more power to keep the ship's full weight off the two truck beds, otherwise it would have crushed them against their axles, scuppering the whole lot.

It had taken the better part of two hours to make the drive back to Cardiff, tracing a route that would avoid narrow roads, roundabouts and tight turns, but finally they managed to pull into the large underground space, able to unload the vessel.

Its passengers were shaken but otherwise unhurt, having received the all clear from Owen. A few of them returned to the hangar to cast their eyes over the ship, whilst the others were being settled comfortably in temporary quarters by Gwen and Ianto.

Tosh assisted with running some diagnostics on the ship, whilst Jack scoured the exterior, looking for obvious signs of damage that could have caused the ship to crash. Their own data from the rift had indicated that it alone wasn't responsible for the ship's fall to earth.

'What do you think, Tosh?' Jack asked, coming aboard the ship's bridge to check on her progress.

'Nothing looks out of order, per se,' she replied. 'A glitch somewhere for sure, based on the output from the moments before the crash, but beyond that I can't be more precise.'

'Well, I've taken a look and there's a few things damaged on impact, but nothing there to explain it, either.'

'We really shouldn't let them try flying it again until we've sourced the problem. Next time they might not be so lucky on landing,' she replied, knowing that it would create a lot of work for them.

'Agreed,' Jack said. 'No one's going anywhere until we're sure the ship is safe.' Jack always claimed he could fly anything and that he knew more about the mechanics of spacecraft than anyone this side of the twenty fourth century.

'That would mean you'd only have to be slightly smarter than Tosh,' Owen argued, trying to dish out a compliment and an insult simultaneously, but both falling flat on their intended recipients.

'I can get it working again,' Jack promised. 'She's not badly damaged by the crash, so something else must have caused it. It's just gonna take some time. She's a big ship, so that's a lot of systems that need stripping down and checking.'

Jack had since made it his mission to get to the bottom of the problem. From a programming perspective, Tosh was immensely helpful in checking the ship's subroutines for corrupted code, but the actual fixing of the ship's mechanical systems was very much Jack's domain.

'Can't your new friends help?' Owen complained, having to take the lead and deal with other rift alerts in the days that followed, whilst Jack was busily focused solely on the task in front of him.

'When your car breaks down, do you know how to fix it?' Jack replied, wiping his brow and leaving a streak of black behind.

'No. What's that got to do with it, though?'

'Just because you own a ship doesn't mean you know how every little bit of it works. For most people it just goes, and when it doesn't, you get someone else to fix it. It just happens to be good policy to be able to fix it yourself if you're in the habit of travelling to far off places.'

If anything, Jack was relishing the task. He'd always made a point of knowing everything there was to know about the ships he'd flown. Breakdowns and crashes, or other interflight accidents never happened anywhere convenient in his experience. Getting his hands dirty, taking apart the various systems and putting them back together again, was a satisfying task. Too much of his time was spent drowning in paperwork and haggling with the police department. This kind of labour intensive puzzle was much more enjoyable.

At least it had been. Once he'd patched up the external damage, he began working his way systematically through the ship's engines. One by one he pulled them apart, cleaned them, and put them back together, finding nothing at fault apart from needing a little fine tuning. There was nothing that could have caused a crash. The longer he spent working his way from one part of the ship to the other, the more vexed he became in trying to find the problem. Whole days went by where he didn't surface from the hangar, not even to stop for the coffee and sandwiches that Ianto dutifully left for him, doggedly determined to find the problem. Coming to bed in the wee hours of the morning, covered in sweat and grime, he collapsed into sleep before Ianto could even begin to lecture him on all the other things he'd neglected: his boyfriend for one.

He was forced to put aside the ship and its mysterious issues the next day on account of a trip to London that couldn't be postponed, reassigned or rescheduled no matter how he begged Ianto.

'Be grateful I'm even making you breakfast,' Ianto replied. 'I'm not the one that had to get up at five to be on the early train to London. This place doesn't run itself, you know. Just because you've shirked everything else doesn't mean the rest of us can.'

'I'm trying to fix the ship,' Jack argued. 'Without it, there's no other way they can get home.'

'A noble sentiment,' Ianto replied, roughly setting down the plate of toast and coffee, though Jack could tell from the tone of his voice that he meant something else entirely.

Jack sipped the coffee gingerly, almost expecting it to be decaf, and quietly surprised to discover it wasn't. 'Look, I'm sorry if I've been a little distracted.'

'Fixated, most would say.'

'Okay, fine,' Jack said, grabbing Ianto to stop him from walking away when he was trying to apologise. 'Yes, I've ignored everything else, you included. What's say when I get back tonight, we spend a little quality time together, just you and me?'

Ianto gave him a questioning look. 'Do you actually mean that, or are you just saying it to appease me?'

'I mean it. You know how these London meetings are. I'm going to need some love and attention after such a grueling day.'

'Maybe it's me who needs some love and attention,' Ianto replied, not usually so bold in asking for what he wanted.

'You'll get it. I promise,' Jack replied, trying to pull him down into a kiss. Ianto resisted.

'Eat your toast or you'll be late. You can kiss me tonight.' Hopefully that would be incentive enough.

All day long Jack's thoughts were never far from the problem of what had caused the ship to crash. When he should have been making notes of things UNIT were proposing for joint operations, he was listing off mechanical systems in order, trying to see if there were any he'd overlooked. Not all parts of the ship were easily accessible, so he'd taken apart the most easy to reach ones first, but perhaps there was something deeper within. It would mean almost taking the entire ship apart, but he couldn't in good conscience let them leave, knowing the problem might still exist. It was capable of flight now, but that wasn't good enough for him. Finally feeling the train pull into Cardiff Central Station, he knew he wanted to investigate further, but he also owed it to Ianto to be more attentive. Perhaps he was becoming fixated.

When Jack arrived back at the hub, Ianto could tell that a day away from the hub had done him some good. He couldn't wait the wrap Ianto up in a hug, asking him what was for dinner - a sure sign that Jack was back to normal. Fortunately for Jack, Ianto had preempted his arrival, having gone shopping earlier, picking up a pre-made lasagne and fixing a garden salad and garlic bread to go with it. It wasn't a home cooked meal, but it was pretty close.

'Everything smells great,' Jack said, smiling contentedly.

'Yes, it does,' Ianto said, stepping closer to breath in Jack's own intangible scent. 'I was thinking maybe some naked hide and seek, afterwards.'

Jack beamed at him. 'So, let's hurry up and eat, then.'

Ianto had been enjoying their evening, Jack back to his old self, charming, relaxed and attentive. Playing their favourite game was just the cherry on top, knowing what always came at the end, which made victory a moot point since everyone basically won.

He was padding around the hub with only one sock on, along with his pants and shirt. Everything else, shoes, vest, jacket, toe, and his missing sock, had already been lost in the previous half dozen rounds. He was still ahead though, having won more of Jack's clothing. He wasn't about to give up his advantage by not finding Jack in time. He'd tried about fifty different hiding spots, but so far there'd been no trace of Jack anywhere.

Working on the basis that he'd changed tact, opting for distance over hiding his remaining clothes and remaining close by to move them over and over again, he worked his way down to the lower levels.

It was the low level of light emanating from Hangar Two that garnered his attention. He knew he'd made sure to switch the lights off when he'd left earlier in the evening. Some of their alien guests had gone down there to gather fresh clothing and some personal effects, so he'd helped them to navigate the maze of tunnels and doors that lead from their current living quarters down to the hangar. A light on at this late hour could have only one explanation. He stood in the doorway and looked around. Sure enough, there was Jack, crouched beneath the huge sweeping tail of the ship.

Ianto sighed. 'You promised,' he said. 'No more fussing over the ship. Just a bit of time for us.' He tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice but it was hard. He put up with a lot of Jack's quirks, as Jack did his, but this obsession with trying to fix the ship was a serious relationship killer.

'Jack!' he said, walking towards him, vexed that Jack wasn't even paying him any attention. 'Walk away from the ship right now and no one has to sleep on the sofa tonight,' he warned. Jack might like that, he thought ironically. Just another excuse for him to stay up all night tinkering with it instead of being in bed.

'Quiet, Ianto!' Jack snapped, giving him an annoyed glare.

That took him aback. 'Excuse me ?'

'Shhh!' Jack even held up a finger at him, silencing him.

Ianto was about to storm out when Jack made a fist, a sign that they should stop and be quiet, that he'd used a hundred times in dangerous situations. It was only his training that kicked in and kept him quiet as Jack knelt there in the semi dark, listening for something. When he stopped and listened he could hear it, a tiny clicking sort of noise, or perhaps scratching.

'What is that?' he whispered.

'I don't know,' Jack whispered back. 'I've been trying to pinpoint the exact spot where it's coming from.'

They huddled in silence, waiting for the noise to start up again, finally hearing it a little off to the left of where Jack was.

'Wait where,' Jack said, disappearing for a moment before returning with his faithful toolbox. He set it on the ground and rifled thought it, looking for the portable laser saw he kept there, wrapping a hand around it. He slid his hand along the panel, looking for the right spot to start cutting. Too far back and he risked damaging critical fuel cells.

'There it is again,' Ianto said, hearing it more clearly this time, a little clicking sound almost exactly where Jack's hand was.

He activated the laser, making a careful incision in the panel, curving it upwards and then straight across, letting the plate metal come loose into his hands. He set it down and without being asked, Ianto handed him a torch. He shone it into the gap, sticking his hand gently inside.

'Is that wise?' Ianto asked, looking concerned.

'If the engines were running I'd say no, but they're not.' He fished around and felt something odd in the space where there should have been nothing. Curling his hand around it, it let out a squeak as he extracted it, shining a light on whatever it was he'd grabbed. 'Well, I'll be damned,' Jack said, unfurling his hand to reveal the stowaway.

'Is that a lizard? Ianto asked, scrutinizing it in the limited light. It shimmered gold and orange with a diamond shaped head and a stumpy little tail. Its tongue was flicking in and out of its wide mouth, making the little clicking sounds he'd heard earlier.

'Close enough,' Jack replied. 'This guy's only a little baby, though,' he added, trying to be gentle as it struggled to escape.

'How big do they get?'

'Three feet long once they're full grown.'

Ianto raised both eyebrows, looking back down at the tiny lizard no bigger than Jack's hand. Three feet was more like a small alligator than a lizard. 'Very much a baby, then.'

'He looks like he's had an accident, though,' Jack said. 'Most of his tail is missing. I'd say it probably got caught in the transference pins.'

'That sounds painful,' Ianto said, wincing.

'At least it'll grow back given time,' Jack assured him. 'It would explain the crash, thought. If he was in here when the ship was trying to transfer power from the fuel cells to the conversion engines, the temporary interference would have been enough to throw the whole thing into chaos.'

'And you didn't think to check this earlier?' From what Jack was telling him, that sounded like a major thing.

'I didn't check it because the gap between the cells and the pins is well sealed. Nothing should ever get in that space to disrupt the flow of power.'

'Just baby animals,' Ianto replied. Hard to believe such a tiny little thing could bring down such a huge ship. He sighed again. 'I guess that's naked hide and seek over, then.'

'Give me your shirt,' Jack said.

'That's not how this works,' Ianto replied. 'I found you, remember?'

Jack grinned up at him. 'As much as I love seeing you stripped bare, it's not for me, it's to wrap up this little guy.'

'I knew that,' he said, slowly peeling it off, feeling cold himself. Why they ever decided to play naked hide and seek on cold nights was beyond him. Jack had no shirt of his own to offer, having lost it two rounds ago, dressed only in his pants. 'So, any ideas how he got in there?'

'None,' Jack said, gently stroking the tiny head, now nestled in Ianto's shirt. 'They could have landed near a colony of them and he somehow snuck on board, or perhaps the egg was in the supplies they picked up and hatched whilst they were in space. Who knows. All he'd have been interested in was finding a warm place, and what better place than a ship's engines.'

'Well, I suppose this means everyone can go home now,' Ianto said, the mystery finally solved. He knew they'd all be very excited by the news. Torchwood had made their stay as comfortable as possible, but nothing could really beat going home to family and your own bed.

'Actually... there's still a few key systems on board that could probably do with a bit of a tune up before they leave,' Jack qualified.

'Jack...' Ianto warned. He'd had quite enough of Jack's tinkering.

'Kidding! This baby's never run so smooth thanks to yours truly. You think I don't know how to prioritise?'

Ianto narrowed his eyes at his lover. 'Sometimes I do wonder.'

'Ianto, tonight I am all yours. Just as soon as we get this little guy sorted out. He's gonna need food, water, and a nice warm place to sleep.'

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'Of course.' One of these days he was going to get used to playing second fiddle to Torchwood.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Cute little baby lizard, even if it's a bit truncated at present. Jack better fix the damage to the ship's hull before their guests leave, can't leave a gaping hole, but after that he'll be all Ianto's again. I guess the lizard is here to stay though.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Just another addition to the Torchwood family!