Torchwood: Fanfic: Making do

[m_findlow]

Title: Making do
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Johnson, Jez Holton
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,088 words
Content notes: Torchwood isn't mine, but Jez Holton is.
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, when you're starving, everything looks good enough to eat" at fic_promptly
Summary: In the middle of nowhere, food is hard to come by.

'I'm starving,' Jack complained to his two fellow teammates, slumped in their seats as they watched the sky outside turn from grey to black. 'Please tell me there's something in this damn car we can eat.'

'We can get something to eat once we're back on the road and somewhere near civilization. I'm sure it won't be that long,' Johnson replied, trying to stay positive that a roadside assist vehicle was in fact on its way to give them a jump start, or fix whatever the hell it was that was making their car unable to go anywhere. They were however out in the boondocks, so it could take them a while to arrive. And it was getting dark, not to mention cold. She just hoped that they didn't give up and decide to wait until morning, hoping that the vehicle's passengers had somehow managed to find a hotel within hiking distance of their broken down car. She was positive on that much at least, that there was nothing out here but miles and miles of nature, and a few less aliens than there were four hours ago.

To say they'd been hostile was something of an understatement. It was one thing to be pissed off that your ship got sucked in by the rift and crash landed, but it was another thing entirely to take out your anger on the only people who were coming out to help. Not that it mattered now. They were nothing but a pile of bodies in body bags, stuffed into the back of the SUV.

'Is there anything in the glove box?' Jez asked, leaning forward from his spot in the back seat. 'There's always something in the glove box,' he said, sounding confident. He always had muesli bars and chocolate bars in his. Breakfast was an afterthought most days, crawling out of bed, showering on autopilot, and somehow driving the whole way to the hub without even remembering how he'd gotten there. It paid to keep something in the car before heading into the hub for another day of adventures. Coffee was a great start, but his stomach needed more than just caffeine.

Johnson popped open the compartment in front of her, pawing through the mess. There were bits of paper, a gun, three loose batteries, but finally she wrapped her hand around something in a plastic packet. The language on the front was unrecognizable, but the packaging screamed food.

'I'm not even sure this is Earth-based food,' Johnson said, poking it and holding it up to get a closer look at it. Even after consulting it for a full minute she still wasn't sure.

'It looks edible to me,' Jack said.

'You really want to be the one to find out if it's not?' she asked. True he couldn't die, but she knew her boss wouldn't be happy if he found out that they'd used Jack as a guinea pig to find out whether it was safe for human consumption. He'd have told them in no uncertain terms that it would have been preferable that they go hungry. Not only that, they'd probably be denied coffee for at least a week.

'You know, this sort of thing never used to happen when Ianto was our general support officer,' Jack said, as if hearing her own thoughts. 'He'd have had provisions stowed everywhere for just such emergencies.'

'Well, see that's what you get for giving someone a promotion,' Johnson said, grinning.

She too was getting hunger pangs, but unlike Jack, she was well trained in forcing them to the back of her mind. She'd could probably go whole days at a time without food if she really put herself to the test. Jack however, was likely to last about five minutes before needing another sugar hit. Ianto had once mentioned to her that Jack claimed it was somehow connected to his regenerative abilities, though the way he said it made it sound skeptical at best. The truth was some people just had obscene metabolisms, and a craving for food, even at times when they weren't genuinely hungry. They were so thoroughly programmed to expect food at regular intervals, it was impossible to retrain the brain.

'I say we take our chances,' Jack said. He pulled it from her hand and began tearing the wrappings off. He took a bite of the strange yellow block of spongy mass and chewed it thoughtfully. 'I don't know quite how to describe the flavour, but it's not the worst, and it definitely qualifies as food.'

'Still begs the question of where it came from,' Johnson said, as he broke it into three chunks with his hand, small crumbs flaking off it and landing in his lap.

'Adelaide and Andy were the last ones to drive the SUV. Probably they left it behind,' Jack said. 'That, or the rift is getting really good at dumping stuff in sneaky places.'

'Strange alien food left in the SUV for just anyone?' Johnson asked. 'A bit risky.'

'Hey, I found a couple of sweets in the side pocket of the door,' Jez cried out victorious, showing off the slightly squashed, slightly melted confections. Despite their sad appearance, he shared them out so there was one each.

'Well, it's not quite what you'd call a complete meal,' Johnson said, grimacing at the poor fare. It might have been pathetic, but she wasn't about to sacrifice her portion to the two boys sharing the car with her. They'd have taken it in a heartbeat, and this could very well be all they had for the night.

'I've had worse meals,' Jack said. 'When you've spent a whole year chained up and being fed nothing but mashed swede, you learn not to become fussy.'

'Dinner by inner car light, just the three of us,' Jez said as they tucked into their meager rations. 'How romantic.' Perhaps he should just be grateful the car's interior light still worked, even if nothing else did. Then again, without the light, it would be a lot harder to see how unappetising everything looked. It certainly wasn't one of their finest moments.

'It's all team bonding at the end of the day,' Jack said, inhaling the rest of his alien cake. 'Torchwood survival skills. How to make do with what you've got.'

'My idea of survival skills would be getting Jubilee to send us an Uber Eats pizza,' Johnson replied. 'I don't care how much the delivery charge is. They'll probably even get here before the mechanics do.'