Torchwood: Fanfic: Trading places - Chapter Five

[m_findlow]

Title: Trading places
Fandom: Torchwood
Prompt: Blackmail at hc_bingo
Wordcount: 13,803 words
Rating: M
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Ianto will have to team up with an unlikely ally to save Jack

Ianto had become distracted by a strange signal on his PDA in a nearby lab. He knew he should get back and find John, but the signal had him worried. If it was what he suspected, he wasn't about to leave it behind.

The door to the suite was locked, just like all the others. He made quick work of the security panel and slipped inside. The room's occupant seemed to sense him, and Ianto heard them before he got visual confirmation. If he'd been annoyed before at the discovery that MoD were keeping things they shouldn't, then now he was furious.

It was hardly bigger than a soccer ball, but it's squawking was invariably louder than its size dictated. The long pointed head and the leathery wings left no doubt as to what it was. At full stretch, it's wings would have been pressed up against the outer confines of the cage it was in. The baby pteranodon squawked and flapped about as he got nearer the cage, clearly agitated. Ianto was horrified.

He talked placidly to the creature in Welsh. He had no idea why. By rights, it had no concept of the language, but it always worked on Myfanwy. Surprisingly, it did calm down. Perhaps it was just the tone of voice he used, rather than the language itself. Chances were it hadn't received particularly kind treatment thus far.

He took a risk and poked a finger through the top of the cage, aiming to stroke the top of its pointed head. Myf liked that too. When it didn't try to bite his hand off, he made contact. He was about to smile, feeling quite pleased at his own success when the sound caught him off guard.

'I'm gone two seconds and already you've made new friends.'

He spun quickly at the sound, whipping his gun up, and prepared to defend both himself and the tiny caged creature.

He breathed out heavily with relief when he realised it was only John.

'Don't do that! I thought you were one of the guards.'

'Always with the guns,' John tutted. 'One day you're going to hurt someone.'

'We can only hope,' he replied. 'How did you find me?'

John gave him a knowing look, but said nothing.

'What's with the pet?' he asked, poking a finger in and quickly snapping it back as the dinosaur lunged at it with its beak. 'Oi! Play nice.'

The pteranodon flapped madly, its wings slapping painfully at the bars, trying to get its beak further outside the cage to get at John's hand. Ianto liked him already.

'Can we go now?' John complained, fixing the tiny dinosaur with an unimpressed look.

'Yep, just help me get him out.'

'What?'

'He's not staying here.'

'And he's not coming with us.'

Ianto stared him down in their mini standoff. 'Last I checked, you weren't in charge here.'

'And you are?'

Ianto ignored him and went searching for the keys to undo the lock on the cage, no doubt kept nearby.

Annoyed, and forced to be kept waiting, John stepped back into the counter behind him and leaned back against it in a huff. Unbeknownst to him, perched on its edge was a liquid filled flask that knocked to the ground, smashing it's contents onto the floor. Immediately they began to vaporise into the air, and both of them instinctively covered their mouths with their arms. Seconds later the fumes triggered an alarm.

'Oops.'

'Oops? That's the best you can manage? Oops? Bloody hell!'

'You know I've been to a planet called hell. It was actually very nice. Great cocktails. Not the drink type mind you...'

'Now is really not the time for a TripAdvisor review!'

'Just saying!'

Ianto began searching for the keys more frantically, ignoring the fact that in about twenty seconds they were about to be discovered.

'No time,' declared John, grabbing the cage by its top and ignoring the pecking at his hand. He just about crash tackled Ianto to the ground, activating his vortex manipulator, vanishing them both just moments before several armed guards burst through the door and discovered the empty room.

 

 

They hit the ground hard, both groaning from the impact, John still on top of Ianto, and the small cage clattering to the ground next to them, with an indignant caw from its occupant.

It took Ianto a moment to realise where they were. The sky was clear and dotted with stars. The tall pillars of the plass encircled them with their light, immediately recognisable, but the area was otherwise deserted.  

'We're back in Cardiff.' Ianto remarked.

'Home, sweet home.' John replied dryly.

'What about the SUV?'

'Still back where we left it.'

'You idiot,' declared Ianto.

'That's the thanks I get for saving your pretty little arse from being shot to pieces?' John's hand strayed too close to the cage and he got pecked sharply again. 'You too? Can't anyone be grateful?'

Ianto hated to admit it, but John was probably right.

'If I gave you the coordinates for the SUV, you could teleport us back?'

'What's the point? It'd take us three hours to drive back, and now we're already here with everything we need to spring Jack.'

'Except a good way of getting there and back.'

He knew it was semantics and that they had other options. He just liked the idea of being able to head into a battle armed with the SUV and it's contents. Without the SUV, it felt like trying to apprehend a weevil armed only with a can opener. You'd probably manage it, but the can opener wouldn't be much use.

Ianto picked himself up off the ground, dusting himself off and  grabbing the cage, stalking back across the plass to the invisible lift.

'Where are you going?'

'I'm putting Hywel somewhere safe.'

'Hywel? You named it? Sweet goddesses, you need help.'

Ianto rolled his eyes, even though his back was turned to John and he wouldn't see it. Admittedly, in his head the tiny creature had been Hywel for about ten minutes already. As he stepped up on to the platform, he found himself face to face with John. He'd closed the gap between them very quickly and seemed intent on following him in.

'Stay here. I'll be back in ten.'

'What am I supposed to do in the mean time?' John yelled as he watched the platform descend into the pavement. 

'Count to six hundred.'

'Very funny.'

 

Ianto quickly settled their latest resident. There wasn't time for introductions, or the worry that the two of them might not get along. All Ianto did was to break open the cage using a pair of bolt cutters, and let Hywel loose into one of the cells, somewhere he at least had a lot more room than before. Apart from a bit of water and some leftover scraps of fruit, it was all he had time for.

He couldn't wait to be able to tell Jack, and to finally have a playmate for Myfanwy. As much fun as they had playing with her, it might be nice for her to have some same species company, and a baby no less, that she could look after. At least he hoped that would be the outcome. There'd be time for that later.

 

Ianto rejoined John on the plass and made for the underground car park at the Millennium Centre, where he'd left his own car parked. The poor thing hardly ever got driven anymore, now that he practically lived at the hub. If they needed to go anywhere, the SUV was always first choice, and rarely did anyone else get trumps on it if Jack was around.

No, apart from the occasional weekend trip back to his flat for some more luxurious bedding options, and the odd day trip down the coast, when the SUV was left for the others, that was the extent of its usefulness these days. He could almost sense it sighing at him, despondent at its own redundancy.

'Now we've gone from pretentious, to just plain boring,' John groaned, observing as Ianto approached the black Audi and opened the door.

'Yeah, well Jack wouldn't buy me the Aston Martin.'

That wasn't entirely true. After his last car had been run off the road, smashed to pieces as it rolled down a steep mountainside, finally exploding in a fireball at the bottom, and leaving it's driver clinging to life halfway down the cliff face, Jack had insisted on replacing it.

A misplaced sense of guilt on Jack's part could have guaranteed him any car he liked. Instead he'd opted to replace like for like, since it was a reasonably practical sort of vehicle. It also made it easier for him to forget that fateful day when working for Torchwood had nearly cost him his life. And it made Jack happy.

'What's an Aston Martin?'

'Never mind.'

Chapter six...

Comments

[bk_forever]

'What's an Aston Martin?' Ianto really will have to introduce John to James Bond movies,. I have a feeling he'd like them.

Nice nod at the end to the audiobooks =)

I adore Hywel, I hope Myf will like having a baby to care for!

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

I hope to write some stories for Hywel in the future, if I can ever get my mojo back into gear.

I suspect John would enjoy the Bond villains more. ;)

[bk_forever]

Probably! But there's lots of sexy people, explosions, and action in Bond movies, so who knows?

More Hywel would be great! I hope your writing mojo comes back soon. I worry that the reason other people aren't writing much is because I've got all the bunnies!

Would collaborating on something help? Because we could try that if you're interested.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

I have bunnies, I'm just lacking in motivation to put them down on paper. I think it's just the stress from work and being too tired afterwards that I can't get going. If I can break through the first ten minutes I could probably keep going, just struggling to find the energy to start so I haven't been. Got to get cracking over the weekend with deadlines for this week's challenges, but also have to do a stupid assignment for work to qualify for specialised superannuation advice because the government changed the regulations. :(

[bk_forever]

*rolls eyes* Stupid governments. Hope the assignment won't be too horrendous.

Glad you've at least got bunnies, even if getting their motors running is proving difficult. Yesterday I couldn't get started writing, kept putting it off, but when I finally got going it was pretty easy and I got a whole fic done for the Envy challenge.

Today I'm supposed to be writing for the new slashthedrabble prompt - Appetizer. I have no ideas whatsoever so I might have to wait on that one until something pops up.

I hope that work stress will ease off soon and that you'll feel less tired *hugs* Lack of motivation is hard to deal with.