Torchwood: Fanfic: The best worst kept secret

[m_findlow]

Title: The best worst kept secret
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 567 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted’s prompt "any, any, the worst kept secret in town" at fic_promptly
Summary: Sometimes the best way to hide something is to put it in plain sight

Every city has its secrets and Cardiff is no exception. That said, some things are hardly a secret, like where to find the best bacon butty, or which pub draws the best pint, or the fact that any Englishman who goes there for a sporting event is fair game for the locals.

No, if you ask anyone what is the worst kept secret in Cardiff, it's Torchwood.

Ask a local "what's Torchwood?" and they'll tell you about a big black SUV that screams around town with yellow writing on its roof and blue flashing lights running along its front windscreen. They'll tell you that whenever something weird happens, Torchwood is always there, though you couldn't say for certain what they did. They'll tell you all their opinions about them being part of MI5 and how the whole country is becoming a nanny state, run by beaurecrats and policed by secret organisations.

Friends and neighbours will mention them in passing, but be able to tell you nothing of the details. It usually goes something along the lines of "yeah, something weird was going on down at number 5 last week. Saw that big black car roll up and out they all trotted. Poor Denise, doesn't remember a thing but now half her backyard is this bizarre shade of purple".

Some people also mention a man. He's tall and wears some old fashioned coat, and looks like he's just stepped out of one of those old war movies. Those who can remember him say he's American, and quite the charmer by all accounts. The others who work for Torchwood are far less memorable, but almost always the tall American is there.

They have a base of operations down by the bay, but no one is quite sure where exactly, since the whole area is covered with restaurants and tourist attractions. Even that sad little office on the quayside is occupied by a neat little man passing out information brochures and selling the odd knick knack. But still, if you were a betting man, it's down there somewhere.

Even the police are baffled. Annoyed is probably the more correct term. Whenever there's an interesting case, and some DS thinks he finally going to crack that promotion by landing the culprit, Torchwood roll in with their special ops credentials and take over. The police are left just rolling out the incident tape and sitting on the sidelines, watching while all the action happens without them. And then they're left there to clean up the mess left behind afterwards, no closer to knowing what exactly is going on. Torchwood certainly haven't made any friends on the force.

Even the local council are unimpressed that there is an organisation running amok in their city over which they have absolute no authority. All of their complaints to the local minister fall on deaf ears. They'll just be told to put their complaints in writing and they'll be passed on to the Home Office if they are deemed relevant. After the first few submissions they've given up. No one's called them back. No one's even read their reports.

Torchwood might be the worst kept secret in Cardiff, but the fact that their city is unknowingly saved from complete destruction on a regular basis, and that it's citizens can sleep at night without being attacked by aliens and zombies, probably makes it the best kept secret.