Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 2,448 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 235 - Ship

Summary: Jack has become slightly obsessed with the latest ship to come through the rift.



'Have you seen Jack?' Gwen asked, spotting Ianto hovering over his faithful coffee machine, seemingly lost in what he was doing.

There was the tiniest little sigh of annoyance. 'Downstairs,' he replied. 'Where else would he be?' Gwen could sense the eye roll coming as he emphasized the words. What he meant was, Jack's downstairs drooling over a spaceship, when he had a hundred other things he should be doing.

Gwen folded her arms and watched Ianto a moment longer. 'You're not jealous, are you?'

He gave a little scoff. 'Me? Jealous? It's a ship.' It wasn't like it was another person he was spending his time with, though with Jack and his rather flexible sexual preferences, perhaps he should be worried.

'Do you want me to go speak to him?' she offered. She could sense the growing frustration between the pair of lovers, even if it was all one sided. Like a powder keg, it was only one spark away from ending badly.

'You can speak to him, Gwen. Whether he'll listen to anything you have to say is another matter entirely. Besides, breakfast is almost ready. Why don't you just tell him that? Food should interest him, even if nothing else does.'

Gwen pulled a face as she left him to his coffee. No, Ianto wasn't jealous at all, she thought facetiously.



It had been days since their latest visitors had hailed them on their Torchwood communications systems, warning them that they were severely damaged by their unplanned trip through the rift, and requesting both a safe place to land and whatever assistance Torchwood could render.

The first was easy. They had a designated location for just such events, tucked away in a wide space between two old coal mining valleys. In fact, it was the old coal mine administration block that allowed them to conceal the spacecraft from prying eyes whilst it underwent repairs. The whole bottom section of the building had been gutted to provide as much space as possible, rather like an aircraft hangar. The second storey had been fitted out with temporary accommodations and facilities, so that any visitors would have somewhere to kip, assuming their ship was not properly equipped for a potentially long stay. It also provided the team with somewhere to work and rest whilst they helped in whatever way they could to get their visitors back up and running, and on their way.

Tosh and Owen had been left in Cardiff to keep an eye on things in the city, whilst Gwen, Jack and Ianto had packed their bags and settled into the facility for the duration. It was that stay that was putting a strain on things.

To say Jack's eyes had lit up as the ship came hovering through the atmosphere, landing gently, before being towed into the facility, was an understatement. He was utterly in awe of the sleek metallic shell, a deep aquamarine colour. It was hard to discern the precise shape since there didn't seem to be a single surface that wasn't one piece of metal, all cleverly fused together. There were no wings jutting out, no tail to speak of, or a nose. It was visually aerodynamic in a way that couldn't be explained.

'Oh, no way,' were the only words Jack uttered as he took in the sight of the ship as it crawled into the hangar, undamaged enough to make it safely to Earth, but not much more.

'No way, what?' Ianto had asked, worried less about the ship than those who might be inside.

'That is a fifty-sixth century delta line star cruiser,' Jack replied, unable to wipe the smile from his face.

'So?'

'So?' Jack repeated. 'It's only the most incredible ship ever built!'

'It's very pretty,' Gwen said.

'Pretty?' Jack scoffed at the word. 'It's gorgeous!'

'It's still just a ship,' Ianto said.

'Ianto, that is not just any ship. Where I'm from this is like the best of the best, the very height of technological marvel. It's like the equivalent of a Tesla car crossed with a Ferrari and a Lear jet.'

'Uh huh.' He still looked far from impressed.

Jack took no notice no however, merely stepping forward to greet the ship's obviously very affluent crew. It wasn't long before he was issuing orders to Gwen and Ianto to roll out the red carpet and make their VIP guests as comfortable as possible. Fortunately for them, despite their considerable wealth, the aliens aboard were remarkably easy going and didn't show any outward signs of their affluence. They were positively friendly and helpful to a fault, even offering to help wash up dishes after their meal, having regaled the team with their journey so far.

Jack was his usual gregarious self, but it was clear he was just itching to get the formalities out of the way and head back to the ship to start helping them make repairs, and to take inventory of what they might need to fix it so that he could arrange for the necessary components to be delivered.

Gwen had seen Jack get like this before. Back at the hub, they had a whole room full of smaller spacecraft that had been collected over the years, and when there was nothing else pressing to be done, Jack could often be found down there, tinkering with them. He'd told her stories of his days with the Time Agency, and how he'd learned as much as he could about the different mechanics of each style of ship, so that he'd never get caught short whilst on a mission. He'd pull them apart and put them back together just for something to do. Boys and their toys, Gwen had mused.

From what she could tell though, it seemed to be mostly Jack standing around, watching them as they worked and offering his own opinions. She wasn't sure he had much of a clue how to go about fixing it, but was simply enthralled by watching others who did. This ship was obviously far beyond even his technical know how. What was it with guys and fast cars, she wondered. That's all this was, really. She'd seen Rhys ogling motorbikes when they'd first started dating. He'd owned one for all of about four months, before he wrapped it around a tree on the Heads of the Valleys Road, and that had been the end of that as Gwen told him. It didn't stop him in his fascination for them, though. Like Jack, he'd go up and strike up a conversation with the owner, pretending to be highly knowledgeable about them, which of course was utter bollocks.



When Gwen came to the bottom of the old steel staircase that led from the upper level to the ground floor deck, Jack was standing under a large open panel, looking up into it, as one of their visitors was perched on a small step ladder, using some strange welding tool that glowed pink.

'Morning Gwen,' he chirped, bubbly and smiling. Amazing that he could be so energetic at this hour. And it was early. Not even seven, but these folk were early risers and Jack wasn't going to miss a moment.

'Morning,' she greeted back, coming to stand next to him, looking up and stifling a yawn.

'Incredible, isn't it?' he asked.

She had no idea what "it" was, but she nodded anyway.

'Have you seen Ianto?' he asked.

'He's upstairs making breakfast, and going to check in with Owen and Tosh just as soon as they're in.'

'Good,' Jack said. 'I could use a coffee. You think he could bring it down here? And something to eat?'

'Breakfast is upstairs,' she replied, having already seen the growing spread of food on the communal table. Even out here in the middle of nowhere, Ianto had them well provisioned.

'I know, but this is important.'

'Important is standing here doing nothing?'

'It's not nothing. How often do you get the chance to see a ship of this calibre? And to get a look at its finer workings right up close. Probably never.'

Jack suddenly grabbed her by the arm. 'I completely forgot, you haven't even seen the warp flux drive, Gwen. We sorted that out late last night. Come see. It's incredible. Oh, and I wanna show you the crystal drives. You won't believe how much data they can hold. If we loaded everything we have from out Torchwood servers from day one to the present, we wouldn't even fill one percent of one single crystal disk. It's a good thing Tosh isn't here or she'd be wanting to snaffle one for herself. And then there's the bridge. You think this is impressive, well, just wait until you're sitting behind the controls. Once she's up and running, they've even promised we can go for a spin!'

'Jack,' she said, pulling out of his grip. 'Don't you think you're becoming a little obsessed?'

'Huh?'

'You. Obsessed. With this ship,' she said, enunciating each word carefully. 'It's all you've talked about since it arrived.'

'Well, what else is there to talk about? They have a ship, it needs fixing, and we're here to help them fix it.'

'Well, from where I'm standing it looks rather like they're doing all the fixing and you're just watching them.'

'Okay, so I'm no expert, but I know things.'

'Have you even slept?' She and Ianto had given in around midnight, even though some of the crew continued to work on repairs. She didn't remember hearing them turn in, and she hadn't thought to ask Ianto, though from his reception earlier, it suggested perhaps he'd spent the night alone.

'I can sleep later. What we really need is to be able to get this ship fixed so it can take off again.'

'Well, it might not take off, but something might. Or should I say, someone.' Gwen gave him the eye.

Jack frowned. 'Who?'

Gwen folded her arms. 'You really have to ask? He's only been moping around trying to be a good host for days, and you've almost completely ignored him.'

Jack pulled a face. 'What, you mean Ianto? I haven't ignored him. I've been busy. He understands. He's fine, really.'

'I've no doubt he understands, but there's a fine line between being too busy and being completely infatuated with an inanimate object to the point where you ignore the people around you.'

Jack paused. 'I... didn't do that... did I?' He knew he'd been focused on the task, but he was pretty sure he hadn't ignored his teammates to the point where they thought he didn't care.

'If I were you,' Gwen began, 'I'd go up there to rescue your coffee and your relationship.'



Jack didn't like being told he'd gotten things wrong, but nor did he want to dismiss Gwen's comments out of hand. If Ianto hasn't happy with him, he need to put that to rights, whether it was a sensible response to the situation or not.

'Hi,' he said, watching as Ianto set out cutlery and plates to go with the mounds of toast and crispy bacon, scrambled eggs and lots of Ianto's signature coffee. He even spied the jar of marmalade. Only Ianto would think to accommodate Jack's unusual taste for bacon butties with lashings of marmalade.

'Hello,' he replied, not stopping what he was doing.

'Breakfast looks good.'

'How it tastes is more important.'

Jack wasn't sure if there was some hidden meaning in the comment, so he decided to just cut straight to the point. 'Ianto, have I been ignoring you?'

'No more than usual,' he said.

'I'm serious. Gwen seems to think I've been a bit single-minded trying to help fix this ship.'

'I won't disagree with her.'

'Really?'

Ianto finished setting the table and looked at Jack. 'If we weren't here, would you even have noticed?'

'Of course I would. I care about you guys.'

'Just not as much as your newest project.'

'That's not true. Okay, no, maybe it's partly true. But Ianto, just look at it. This is a once in a lifetime chance to get up and close to something most people will only ever dream about. Don't you have fantasies you wish you could fulfill?'

Of course he did. But fantasy was one thing and reality was another. Thinking that George Clooney truly knew anything about brewing the perfect cup of coffee, other than what he was paid to say, was different to imagining them having a hearty discussion about the correct temperature settings for crema, and whether he preferred Costa Rica beans or Brazilian beans. Not that he'd ever admit having that particular fantasy. Jack might read into that all the wrong sorts of things.

'That's not a fantasy, Jack,' he said pointing down at the deck below. 'That's just you drooling over the alien equivalent of a hotted up sports car.'

'Oh, jealous, are we?'

Ianto huffed. 'I don't do jealous.'

Jack smirked, knowing he had Ianto flustered now, continuing to move toward him, slowly backing him into a corner. 'You thinks it's prettier than you?'

'It's not pretty.'

'That I'm upgrading to a better model?'

Ianto rolled his eyes, though it was half-hearted. 'I'd hardly call it better.'

'Have you pictured me making love to it?' Jack teased, lowering his voice and making it sound sensual. 'Staying up late after you've gone to bed, just the two of us? Stroking that smooth metal? Two hard bodies coming together as one.' Jack was so close now his hot breath was ghosting across Ianto's cheek. He had Ianto right where he wanted him now.

'It's a ship.' Ianto managed to force the words out between hitched breaths.

'But it's so big.'

Ianto had run out of smart responses, too wound up by Jack's innuendo laced suggestions. Jack loved it when he finally managed to silence his lover.

'You're still the most gorgeous thing around here, Ianto. I might not always say it or show it, but it's going to take a lot to outdo you. You certainly don't have to compete against a spaceship, even if it is the next sexiest thing around.'

Ianto shuffled awkwardly in the narrow gap Jack had left him. 'Oh. Uh, that's good.'

'Think you can remind me why I'd choose you any day?' Jack asked.

Ianto swallowed hard. 'What did you have in mind?'

'Well, I was thinking maybe later you and I?' Jack nodded down at the deck below. 'I mean, anywhere is good, but seeing you splayed naked up against that sexy gleaming hull is going to look very, very hot.'

The whack he received for the comment was absolutely worth it.