BTBD Challenge 1 - Going crazy

[m_findlow]

Title: Going crazy
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Suzie
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 654 words
Content notes: Written for Challenge 1 - Crazy at beattheblackdog
Summary: Ianto is beginning to realise that Torchwood Three is going to be very different

He'd only been here a few weeks but already he was beginning to understand that this was going to be very different to Torchwood One. He'd just been another tiny cog in the almighty machine in London. Here, he was practically in on the ground floor. Well, not exactly. He was still treated like the hired help by Owen and Suzie, and Jack for his part, was capitalising on the many things he'd discovered about Ianto Jones in his brief induction to the Cardiff branch. Tosh was the friendly bridge builder between his old life in London and his new life here.

It wasn't so much what Jack and the team were discovering about Ianto, as it was what Ianto was discovering about Jack and his team.

Torchwood London had been a vast rumour mill, and even the lowest employees, like himself, had heard at least a few outrageous stories about the man who ran Torchwood Three. They couldn't possibly be true, he'd reasoned,  but the longer he spent here, the more he realised that they weren't even close to accurate. If anything, the truth was stranger than fiction.

He was never seen without that old style military coat. Rumours had it as just for show, but it was clear he prized it more than anything, and in the few weeks he'd been here, so had Ianto.

The car was just as ostentatious, with its blue flashing lights and yellow hallmarks emblazoned on its roof. There was nothing subtle about it considering they were supposed to be a secret organisation. Secretly though, he would have loved to been behind the wheel just once.

He kept all of his opinions and observations to himself, but every so often he felt compelled to say something, if only to confirm one of the thousands of questions rolling around inside his mind.

He was quietly making a round of coffee, whilst the others lounged about laughing and joking as Jack recounted some outlandish story. Ianto was only half listening. It didn't do well to make himself too obvious, all things considered.

But then Jack had started rather extravagantly acting out some bizarre act of fellatio that was clearly connected to his story. It was at that point Ianto couldn't help but gape, and was caught out as Suzie wandered over to steal a handful of custard cream biscuits from the jar.

'Careful,' she warned. 'He might think you're interested.'

Ianto blushed furiously and dipped his head, trying hard to concentrate on pouring the milk, and not what Jack was doing. For the leader of a secret organisation that protected the world from aliens, he was as far from Yvonne Hartman as you could get.

He efficiently passed Suzie her mug in the process.

'Is he always this, uh,' he couldn't find the words he was looking for. At least, none he could say out loud.

'Crazy?' she supplied. She leaned back against the counter and sipped at her coffee, smirking in a knowing way.

'This is nothing. You should see him out in the field. Then again, you don't have to worry about that, do you?' she added, wandering back to join the others.

He couldn’t tell if she disliked him, or if she just spoke to everyone like that. She treated Owen not much better than him, but then, they were sleeping together, even though they thought nobody knew.

He began passing around the remaining coffees, leaving Jack until last.

There was a tiny glint in Jack's eye as he grasped the mug, suggesting that he'd known Ianto had been watching him. A tiny spark more suggested he wouldn't mind trying out that particular act with him, if he was interested.

Maybe Suzie was right. Maybe he thought Ianto was interested. Worse still, he couldn't say for certain that he wasn't.

Yes, crazy was exactly the right word. But perhaps it wasn't Jack who was the crazy one.

Comments

[jo02]

Poor Ianto, it must have been like moving to a new planet - a crazy new planet - for someone from Torchwood 1 and suffering from PTSD !

[bk_forever]

This is great! Ianto was dropped in at the deep end and just expected to somehow keep afloat through all the craziness. It must have been beyond disorienting for him.

Still trying to decide what to write for the inaugural challenge. Now Challenge Week is more or less over, I can focus my attention on this and fan_flashworks instead =)

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was going to write it as a drabble, since it seemed appropriate to christen the comm with the very thing that had started me on this mad snowball adventure, but I thought, what the hell, it deserves something of more substance.

Are you planning on pledging for Get Your Words Out? I'm still in two minds as to whether I'll pledge for 200k and really push myself this year. 150k would be less than I actually wrote for last year, but I'm too scared to go to for 250k! ;)

[bk_forever]

I wasn't going to, because I'm having a lot of physical health problems at the moment and I don't want to put pressure on myself and then feel bad about not being able to keep up.

I wouldn't have had the nerve to pledge for 250k anyway, but to my surprise when I totted up last year's word count - over 300,000! Can you believe it? I haven't posted half of what I wrote yet!

I'm glad you decided to write a longer piece. The subject matter merited it.

I've done my piece for the challenge! It's FAKE though, not Torchwood this time.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all surprised you topped 300k! Well done you! Looks like I have a lot of reading to look forward to (so far behind already!)

Hope you can get you health sorted and that it doesn't impact you too much.

[bk_forever]

Got a doctor's appointment on Friday, so we'll see.

I was amazed! I was hoping to beat last year's word count, but I never expected to write that much! It's the posting that takes the time though.