Fffc Bingo Card - Long walk back to camp

[m_findlow]

Title: Long walk back to camp
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Torchwood team 
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 98 - Tramping at fffc
Summary: Ianto's day out with the team is not the enjoyable adventure Jack must have had in mind. 

Today just keeps getting better and better, Ianto thought, joining the others as they wandered around their destroyed campsite, trying to gather up whatever hadn't been trashed by a maniac in their now stolen SUV. The tents were torn, their ropes snapped in half when they'd been run over. They wouldn't provide much shelter now, apart from a rudimentary blanket of sorts. They certainly couldn't be propped back up again. 

He picked up a tin mug, slightly dented, but still capable of holding the better part of a cup of tea. If they'd had any tea, that is. And definitely no coffee. That had still been in the boot with all their other food supplies that Jack had instructed him to pack. Ianto hadn't been looking forward to the prospect of camping, but he was looking even less forward to a night of hitchhiking along a mainly disused road in the middle of the Beacons when there were rumours of people being abducted. At least he wasn't completely alone. That had to count for something. He might not have been everybody's favourite person, but if he had to be stuck somewhere creepy and possibly dangerous, these were probably the four people he'd want with him. 

‘We're not staying here,’ Owen declared loud enough from everyone to hear, kicking something across the grass. It sounded like another tin mug. Ianto dropped his own back to the ground, having debated gathering ultimately useless items versus despoiling the natural beauty. 

‘Of course we're not,’ Jack replied. ‘Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?’ 

‘Already done,’ Ianto announced. He was the only one who still had some decent kit, having carted it all the way from their camp to the dead body in the forest and back again. He might have been their pack mule but he was glad of it now. At least they still had a torch, a PDA, some medical supplies and a bottle of water. ‘I took the liberty. It's currently three point four miles west from here.’ 

Owen snorted, coming to stand beside him and peering over his shoulder as if to check Ianto's results. ‘Gunning at ninety, no doubt. You steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight on till morning.’ 

Second star to the left, Ianto silently added. ‘Actually, no. It's been stationary for the past four minutes. I'd go so far as to say it was parked.’ 

Gwen flapped out the ordnance map and studied it. How it of all things had survived, Ianto would never know. Jack had spent hours consulting them and hadn't come up with anything. ‘There's a small village in that area. Other than that, nothing for thirty miles.’ 

Made sense. Just far enough away to make this a convenient place to dump dead bodies. Maybe whoever had stolen their car assumed they'd try and stick it out here for the night and come murder them in the pitch dark. That's what he would have done, you know, if he'd been the murdering psychopath type. He tried to sweep that thought away. 

Jack's suggestion that they walk to the village had been accepted without words. Only Owen naturally arked up about it. ‘The countryside was bad enough. Camping even worse. Now you want us to go tramping halfway across the country to go and find our bloody car?’ 

‘It's scarcely more than an hour’s walk. Get over it,’ Ianto replied, fed up with having to be silently unhappy about the situation when Owen was allowed to gripe openly to his heart's content. 

Jack raised an eyebrow at the sudden outburst but said nothing. He'd been remarkably cagey since Gwen had gone and put her foot in it. That's what you get for being snarky and mean, Ianto decided, having reconsidered his earlier comments and wishing he'd kept them to himself. He took off at a decent pace, long legs making short work of the sprawling countryside. For one thing, he had the PDA and their heading to find the village. Secondly, being out in front meant he didn't have to see the rest of them, silently mouthing their questions and shrugging at one another about their moody third wheel. At least he had moods and feelings more which is more than he could sometimes say about his coworkers. 

To be fair, he didn't mind the countryside. He didn't even mind the threatening grey skies overhead. It was despondently picturesque. He made good ground for about half an hour until he was forced to stop and consult his PDA again. 

‘We still headed in the right direction?’ Jack asked. He nodded, looking down at the edge of the cliff that dropped away in a mixture of patchy grass and shale. 

‘Only an hour’s walk, you said,’ Owen muttered. ‘It'll take an hour to find a way to get down that.’ 

‘I was tracking the signal from the SUV. You're the one with the ordnance maps. You didn't think to tell me there was a great bloody cliff in between?’

‘It's fine,’ Jack said. ‘It's not too steep. We can pick a path down it. I'd rather the two of you didn't opt for efficiency by trying to shove one another over the edge. ‘We'll pair up to help each other down.’ 

Owen gravitated towards Gwen who was already shuffling down a gap in the rock. Tosh followed after them with Jack. He paused, looking at Ianto who was still just standing there, left without a buddy. They'd forgotten about him, just like always. 

Jack reached out a hand to him. ‘Come on, I need my trusty navigator.’ 

Ianto took the proffered hand and Jack held it a little longer than was strictly necessary. There was something of a silent apology in that touch that made Ianto sigh and concede. This whole thing was nobody's fault, not his and not Jack's. But they did have to work together if they were going to solve the mystery and get home safe and sound.