Title: Driving Miss Jack
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,671 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 211 - Drive
Summary: Driving the SUV is something of a luxury.


Jack hissed in pain as he lay crumpled on the ground at an odd angle, the weevil having crushed him as it fell forward from the shots he'd just fired. It was never ideal, killing a weevil, but this one had gone well and truly rogue.

'Jack? Are you okay?' he heard the voice calling out from somewhere above him.

'Yeah, fine. Just get this gorilla off me!'

With a bit of tugging, Ianto managed to grasp enough of the tattered boiler suit to make a concerted effort in pulling the large weight away from Jack, aided by Jack's own emphatic shoving.

'Damn, he was a big one,' Jack said, getting his breath back and sitting himself up and wincing in pain again. 'How the heck did it get this far?' he asked. Twenty miles from the city was a very decent hike for any weevil to travel, especially for one so large and noticeable. Most kept to the local sewer system, never venturing far from their little clans.

'Are you sure you're okay?' Ianto said, looking concerned at Jack's obvious pain.

'Just twisted my ankle in the fall, that's all,' Jack replied. He attempted to stand up and just about toppled Ianto in the same way the weevil had just done to him moments ago as it gave out underneath him, falling heavily in his teammate's direction. The roar of pain was unmistakable as Ianto half caught him, arresting his less than graceful descent to the ground.

'I think you might have done more than twist it,' Ianto said, watching the grimace on Jack's face.

'Actually, you may be right,' Jack admitted. His boot felt unnaturally tight around his ankle where it was swelling up. 'Help me get it off?'

'No. I think it's best we leave it on. Probably doing more good than harm to keep the bones in place if you've broken it.'

'Huh,' he muttered. Even since the team had discovered his inability to stay dead or injured, they'd all become experts on telling him what to do. Things had been so much easier before they'd all started mothering him over every cut and bruise.

Ianto helped him hobble towards the SUV, before sitting him in the passenger side seat. 'I'll go fetch the weevil,' he said. 'You stay here.'

Jack wasn't sure how Ianto was going to manage to get the big guy down the street and into the back of the SUV on his own. On a good day it took two of them to tackle a fully grown male weevil. He watched on, impressed as Ianto dragged the beast the entire way, finally lifting it somewhat awkwardly into the back of the vehicle.

'Someone's been eating all their vegetables,' Jack quipped. He did love to tease Ianto, though he was definitely not as skinny as he had been, more muscled and toned, neither of which Jack was objecting to.

'It takes a lot to keep up with you, sir.'

Jack chuckled. That much at least was true. 'You're doing okay so far,' Jack replied, unable to keep the grin from his face despite the throbbing ache in his leg. Yep, definitely broken, he decided.

'Keys?' Ianto asked.

'Huh?'

'Well, you're not driving with your right ankle like that, are you?' Funny how it sounded a lot more like a statement than a question when Ianto said it.

'Oh. Sure,' he said, dumbly passing them over. 'Spose you're right.'

Ianto simply gave him a look that implied he was always right, before opening the driver side door and sliding in. This was a rare opportunity to take the wheel, and Ianto wasn't going to let it pass him by.

He'd heard Owen protest often and loudly about the girls driving the SUV. He claimed that it was all to do with having to readjust the seats and the mirrors. He didn't seem to have noticed that Gwen was hardly shorter than he was, and that his own stature was just as problematic. Whenever Ianto had to take the SUV for cleaning after Owen had been thrashing it across country, or having left bleeding bodies in the back of it, there was a good five minutes of getting the seat pushed back and the mirrors moved so that he could safely take it was far as the local car wash for what would be just a preliminary cleaning before he drove it back to the hub for round two with some industrial strength solvents.

He never had the same problem with Jack. He almost matched Jack for height, and found that nothing required tinkering, simply slipping into the seat and carrying on as if he'd been meant to drive it. Getting out of the hub was something of a luxury. Getting to do it in the SUV was closer to birthday and Christmas rolled into one.

Having said that, he never got further than the car wash, and most times, it was only as far as getting it out of the underground car park to meet the team up on the surface of Roald Dahl Plass, before they hopped in and left him behind. Only a handful of other times could he recall having gone somewhere else. The first time had been when he'd been asked to wait outside the hospital whilst the rest of them were inside capturing a rogue weevil. If he recalled correctly, just as he was pulling out he sneezed and very nearly ran over Gwen who wasn't even a member of the team at the time. The other handful of times, he'd been playing passenger until Jack randomly just threw himself headlong out of the driver's seat in the middle of the road. He took off in hot pursuit of whatever they were chasing, leaving Ianto to scramble from one side to the other to catch him up somewhere in the maze of streets that made up the city centre. Apart from those few short bursts of activity, he'd never driven it above thirty-five miles, and crawling through the car wash was hardly what he'd call the thrill of a lifetime. Still, there was always that slight little tingle as he nestled into the seat, keys in hand, as if he was about to take it out for the joy ride of his life.

'Are we going?' Jack asked, interrupting his thoughts.

'Yep, just give me a minute.' It was something of a hollow victory, seeing as how Jack physically couldn't drive, but a victory nonetheless. It was tempting to take the long route back to the hub, but there was also no sense in prolonging Jack's own discomfort. It would heal of its own accord by morning, but until then, the best thing for it was still rest, ice and elevation - none of which he could do out here in the middle of suburbia.

'Seat belt,' he said, noticing Jack hadn't bothered.

'You drive like a nanna,' Jack replied, using that as an excuse, but clipped it in anyway.

'As if you'd know,' Ianto said.

He couldn't help but love the SUV. There was just something right about it, the way the steering wheel seemed to fit his hands so comfortably, the pedals weren't twitchy nor did they need to be forced into action, like a stubborn mule. The engine purred at a sensible speed and roared when it sprung into action. It was built like a tank, but as sleek as a panther, turned with all the grace of a ballet dancer and could stop on a dime. They way Jack threw it about sometimes it was a wonder it did any of those things. Owen wasn't much better. Some days it felt more like riding a bucking bronco than it did parading a palomino. All it really required was a deft hand at the wheel to make it go just the way it was meant to.

He turned the car off the street and onto a minor arterial road, before turning it onto the motorway which would drop them right back in the heart of the city.

'Can we go faster?' Jack asked, looking mildly bored as being stuck as Ianto's passenger. 'It is a motorway after all.'

He thought Jack would never ask, suppressing his own little smile of delight. Ianto pressed the pedal down a little further, feeling the car shift up a gear. It was so smooth, like the road was silk beneath the tyres. He'd been a passenger plenty of times, but being at the helm made it ten times better. It felt faster, smoother, and more exhilarating. What he wouldn't give to open up the throttle and run it down the M3 on a night like tonight when all the regular traffic had melded away, leaving just him and the open road. He'd be Jones, Ianto Jones, international super spy in his super cool company car.

It was over all too soon for his liking, quickly hitting the inner city streets, left, then left again, through the one way system, before the SUV was gently gliding back into its usual parking space beneath Millennium Centre. He flipped the key and reluctantly pulled it out.

He stepped out, opening the door on Jack's side, just like any good chauffeur, and helping him out as he tried to keep weight off the injured ankle.

'Thanks,' he said, letting Ianto get an arm under him to help him hop along at his side. 'Lucky I had you along for the ride. Even if you do drive like an old woman.'

He knew he should take offense to the comment, but he was still coming down from the high of finally being able to get properly behind the wheel. 'Did I ever tell you about the first time I ever broke the speed limit?' he asked.

'Nope,' Jack grinned, loving a good story. 'When was that?'

'Oh, about a few minutes ago.'

Jack groaned in disappointment. It was a good thing Ianto had many other fine qualities.