Fffc Bingo Card - Raining on his parade

[m_findlow]

Title: Raining on his parade 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen, Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 58 - Sunshine at fffc
Summary: The weather is causing Jack to feel down and out. 

Gwen gave an involuntary shiver as she folded up her umbrella and set it to lean inside her waste paper bin. It seemed as good a place as any to put it where the water could happily drip from the bright blue plastic. Her coat was more difficult to find a home for since it too was just as wet. 

Even as she was tugging it off, she could already sense the shadow lurking behind her. ‘Yes, yes,’ she huffed, shooing Ianto away even as he was dropping paper towels down everywhere she'd been, soaking up the water she’d tracked in. ‘I was getting to that. For pity's sake! Stop being such a bloody fuss.’ Honestly, she loved Ianto but he could be such a nightmare with his fussing and obsessive compulsive need to clean and tidy. She didn't need him hovering under her feet every time she spilled a crumb. He tossed down a few extra sheets of towel and silently left, taking his instruction to go before Gwen got narky with him. And well she might if he kept that up. 

She ended up hanging the coat over the back of her chair. There was so much towel there already that it seemed pointless in wasting it. She gave another shiver as she rubbed her cold, damp hands together and hustled towards Jack's office, praying that a steaming hot cup of coffee might soon follow. 

‘It's raining absolute bloody cats and dogs out there,’ she said as she came in through the doorway. In fact it was probably raining every other animal as well. 

‘I know,’ Jack replied, huddled at his desk in his coat. He looked cold as well, even if he was a shade dryer than Gwen. Not only did he look cold, he looked absolutely miserable. 

‘Who's gone and run over your dog?’ she asked, before clamping her jaw quickly shut. ‘Oh God, sorry, I mean, it's not the dog, is it?’ God, wouldn't that just be her luck? Make a joke about the dog dying when it actually had. Jack loved that bloody dog. One of these days she was going to learn to think before she spoke. 

‘No, it's not Buddy. He's fine. Curled up at home in a duvet slash pillow fort on our bed when I left this morning.’ He gave her a conspiratorial look. ‘Just don't tell Ianto. He hates it when I let the dog sleep on the bed.’ 

Gwen held her tongue. As if Ianto wouldn't know from the rumpled duvet and pillows covered in dog drool and black fur. Sheleaned a hip against the desk. Even for a confession that he'd done something naughty, he didn't sound all that pleased with himself. There was something not right, like a gloom had descended on him. ‘Okay, so what's wrong with you, then? You look miserable.’ It clearly wasn't a row with Ianto or he wouldn't have even dared to test his patience by indulging their pet. 

‘It's this,’ he said, waving his arms around at nothing in particular. ‘The weather. It's been raining for weeks on end, and when it's not raining it's all dark and grey and gloomy. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sun.’ He leaned back from his desk, rapping his knuckles on the glass and getting Tosh's attention. ‘Tosh, can you do me a deep space scan?’ 

‘Sure,’ she yelled back. ‘What am I looking for?’ 

‘The sun! I want to check whether it's still part of our solar system or if some alien ship has run off with it.’ 

‘If it was gone, it would be very dark all the time,’ she reminded him good-naturedly. ‘Let me know when you have some real work for me to do.’ 

Jack groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. ‘This sucks.’ 

‘It's Wales,’ Gwen replied. ‘We don't do sunshine. Surely after a hundred years you'd be used to it by now.’ 

‘I grew up on a beach surrounded by desert, Gwen. We never didn't have sun. Sun was practically all we had, every day, all year, for the entire first sixteen years of my life. A few cloudy overcast days I can handle but this rain is something else. It's like a freak weather system, a monotony of rainy days. I don't even feel like myself anymore.’ 

‘It's sad.’ 

‘I know it's sad. But what am I supposed to do about it?’ 

‘No,’ Gwen said. ‘Not sad. SAD. As in seasonal affective disorder. When people feel down and depressed because of the grey weather. It's a real thing. They've done studies to prove that the weather can affect your mood.’ 

‘You're saying I'm feeling low because of a few rain clouds?’ 

‘Well, that's one explanation for it. There could be other things going on in your life that are adding to it but if you say that the weather is driving you mad, then that's probably to blame.’ 

Jack folded his arms and looked at her like she had two heads. ‘Huh. I never thought of that. You're right.’ 

‘And, it also wouldn't help being stuck down here all day,’ she added. ‘Not exactly the brightest, cheeriest place to work.’ 

‘Are you dissing my office?’ 

She grinned. ‘Never. It's lovely if you like mould and decay.’ 

‘You're dismissed, Gwen Cooper.’ 

She took her instructions and left. Back at her desk, Ianto was extracting her umbrella from the bin and filling it with all the now damp pieces of paper towels. ‘Ianto, you've got some leave owing, don't you?’ 

He quirked an eyebrow at her. ‘Yes. So?’ 

‘So it might be nice if you and Jack took a few days off. Somewhere abroad? Somewhere it isn't raining?’ 

He became pensive as he considered it. ‘I've always wanted to visit Egypt and see the pyramids and the sphinx, actually.’ 

She clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Perfect. You go start booking that trip and I'll finish picking up these towels.’ 

He shrugged. ‘Oh. Okay.’