m_findlow

Title: Lost and found
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Suzie, Owen, Tosh, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 804 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, looking in the wrong place" at fic_promptly
Summary: Suzie and Owen are having trouble finding an alien bird.

Suzie ran a hand though her fair, tugging it out of her face. 'It's got to have flown off by now,' she declared. There'd been several reports to police from this neighborhood having sighted a large fluorescent green bird. It had been reported in as concern for a parrot escaped from the zoo, but the location matched a recent minor rift surge, so the team took it as no coincidence.

'Yeah, well Jack reckons it can't have got far,' Owen replied, though equally fed up with this wild goose chase. Parrot chase. Whatever.

Of course it had to happen in one of those posh, leafy streets, didn't it? Anywhere else, a bright green bird was going to stand out like the proverbial. How residents had even spotted it was beyond her, but no matter how much doorknocking they'd done, pretending to be rangers from the zoo, no one had seen it since.

Suzie tapped her comms. 'Tosh, have there been any other sightings beyond this street?'

'None,' she replied. 'But Jack and I are not too far away now. I'm bringing more sensitive equipment to help you try and locate any traces of rift radiation.'

'Good,' Owen grumbled, sitting down on a low stone fence.

'Owen, come over here!' Suzie called out.

'What?'

'I think I saw something move up there,' she said, pointing into the sea of green from an oak tree that was so large, it was beginning to uproot the concrete footpath around it.

'We checked there already,' he said, but coming over anyway.

'Well, it doesn't hurt to take another look, does it? Up you go.'

Owen turned to look at her, incredulous. 'Why me?'

'Because you're short and skinny and wearing sneakers.'

Owen pulled a face. 'You're short and skinny and wearing sneakers,' he replied.

Suzie gave him a condescending look. 'Yes, but I'm second in command, so what're you going to do about it?'

Owen rolled his eyes at her. 'If it attacks me, be it on your conscience.'

'I can live with that. Now mush,' she said, pointing up at the tree. 'Before it decides to move on again. I'll go grab the net and pass it up to you.'

Owen began the awkward climb, made difficult by the fact that the trunk was so wide and the first branches so high up. This was the real reason Suzie hadn't wanted to climb, he realised. Finally though, he managed to get a bit of purchase on the gnarled bark, leaping up to grab the lowest branch by luck more than anything, and hoping to God he didn't disturb the bird. He pulled himself onto the branch and sat there a moment until Suzie returned, passing him the net handle first.

'See anything yet?'

Owen peered into the thick leaves, standing up on the branch and forcing himself higher up into the tree. Leaves and acorns slapped his face as he kept an eye out for any movement above him. 'Here, birdie, birdie, birdie...' Owen murmured. He still couldn't see it, but given how dense the tree was, it made the perfect hiding spot. He lifted a foot and tested the weight of the next branch before pulling himself all the way to the top, hugging the main trunk as it split off into several canopy branches.

'Suzie, you can call off the hounds!' came Jack's bellowing voice, though the leaves muffled the sound. She turned to find Jack and Tosh walking along the street towards them.

'Where's the SUV?'

'Parked in the street behind,' Jack replied, thumbing over his shoulder. 'We found the bird as we were driving in. Lucky Tosh just happened to be calibrating our gear at the time.' He looked around. 'Where's Owen?'

Suzie pointed up.

'What the hell is he doing up there?'

'Looking for the bird, of course.'

Jack burst out laughing. 'Owen, get your arse down here!'

Owen climbed down and saw the amused look on Jack's face. 'What's so funny then?'

'Apart from you being up a tree? Honestly, I don't know how you thought you were going to find it up there.'

Suzie gave Jack a queer look. 'Why not?'

'Because it's a burrowing bird. It only flies when it has to travel for food. We found it in a neighbour's backyard hiding in a rabbit hole. And, if I'm not mistaken, she's about to give birth to a clutch of eggs, so she'd have been on the lookout for a nice safe place for them. That's no doubt what the locals saw, her scoping the place for a nest.'

'So we've spent the last two hours scanning rooftops and magnolia trees for nothing?' Suzie moped. 'What are the chances we get the one bird that doesn't like to nest in trees?'

'I know, right?' Jack said, grinning. 'Isn't the universe just awesome?'