m_findlow

Title: Gone fishing
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Suzie
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 123 - Magnet at anythingdrabble
Summary: Suzie has a plan to retrieve their lost alien object.

Suzie glared at Jack as she heard the alien object go clinking through the metal sewer grate and out of reach. 'Oh, I wish you'd be more careful!' she scolded.

'Hey! That guy with the push bike should have been looking where I was going,' Jack argued, picking himself up off the pavement since Suzie didn't seem to be offering him a hand. 'It's not my fault he stacked into me and knocked it out of my hand.' He brushed himself down and stared down into the black depths of the grate. Talk about back luck. 'Don't suppose you fancy a trip down a manhole to try and go find it.' He certainly didn't.

'It's probably not gone down all that far yet,' she replied. 'We just need to fish it out.' She wandered back to the SUV and popped the boot, rifling around in one of their toolboxes.

'What are you going to do?' Jack asked.

'Well, it's metal, so all we really need is a magnet to dangle down there and get it back out.'

Jack scratched his head. 'And where are we going to get a magnet from? They're not standard Torchwood kit, though maybe from now on they should be.'

She grabbed a tiny spanner, tossing it onto the ground and began beating the wide end with a hammer.

'You're enjoying that a little too much for my liking,' Jack observed,

'You'd rather me hit you with it for being a colossal klutz?'

'Hammer away, Suzie Costello,' he replied, backing away before she did indeed change her mind. 'I still don't see how this helps.'

'Just shut up and unravel a bit of twine from that spool in the toolbox.' He did as he was told and Suzie looped the string through the hole in the top of the spanner.

'That's your magnet?' It looked like the worst fishing reel he'd ever seen.

'I've done this before alright?' She let the narrow spanner slip through the grating, getting down on her hands and knees to peer into the blackness. 'Shine that torch in there would you?'

He grabbed the torch from the back the clicked it on. She was too far right. She pulled up the spanner and sunk it back down into a hole further to the left. She then began slowly jiggling it from side to side until she heard a tiny clink. 'Ah ha! Got it.' Very carefully she drew the string back up and there, attached to the end of the spanner, was the small silver disc.

'Well, I'll be damned,' Jack chuckled. 'You actually made a magnet out of a spanner.'

She shrugged as if it were nothing. 'Just rearranged a few charged particles, that's all. Now,' she said, handing it over to him, 'see if you can't keep hold of it this time. At least until we get back to the hub. But if you drop it down between the seats, you get to be the one to retrieve it.'