Title: Deprivation
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1048
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Coffee is off the menu for Jack, and he’s less than happy about it. Tea just isn’t the same.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 287: Cup.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.








Jack stared gloomily into the depths of his cup and gave an equally gloomy sigh. “It’s just not the same.”

Ianto rolled his eyes. “It wouldn’t be, would it? It’s tea.”

That drew another sad sigh from Jack, along with a look of reproach. “Can’t I have coffee? Just a teeny tiny one,” he begged. “Please?”

“Jack, you know as well as I do, better than I do in fact, what happened the other day when you stole Gwen’s coffee.”

“She wasn’t drinking it, and it would’ve gone cold!” Jack protested. “That’s no way to treat your coffee! You know what Gwen’s like; she would’ve re-heated it in the microwave when she remembered it!” Jack gave a dramatic shudder.

“That is SO not the point. Remember the effect drinking it had on you?”

A blissful smile spread across Jack’s face. “It was heavenly! Nothing tastes better than your coffee.”

“And?” Ianto prodded, not letting Jack dodge the issue..

Jack dropped his hands to his swollen belly, wincing as he remembered. “And the baby kicked and squirmed so much I thought I might be going into premature labour,” he muttered.

“Exactly. Coffee made our child hyperactive, for twelve very long hours.”

Both Ianto and Jack had been frantic with worry, and Owen had been running every kind of test he could come up with, unable to figure out what was causing junior’s non-stop kicking and punching. It had been as if he’d had a rugby scrum going on inside him. Eventually the mystery had been solved when Owen had detected high levels of caffeine in Jack’s bloodstream, but Jack had been forced to spend the rest of the day hooked up to monitors so that the medic could keep a close eye on things, just in case.

“How was I to know one cup of coffee would do that?” Jack turned the puppy dog eyes on his husband.

“It wasn’t just a cup of coffee though, was it? It was a huge mug full, and I distinctly remember Owen telling you a couple of months back that too much caffeine during pregnancy might have adverse effects on the baby.” Ianto crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at Jack, daring him to deny it.

“Yeah, but I thought he meant I shouldn’t drink it all day like I used to, not that I couldn’t have it at all.” Jack pouted, remembering Owen coming down on him like a ton of bricks a few days after that conversation, when he’d caught Jack in the kitchen helping himself to coffee from the fresh pot Ianto had just brewed.

“And even though you now know exactly how coffee affects our baby, you want to put yourself, and our unborn child, through that again? What if this time it really did trigger premature labour? Is a cup of coffee really worth that kind of risk?”

Jack shrank back in his seat, folding his arms protectively around his bump and shaking his head. “No,” he said in a small voice.

“I thought not. Drink your tea.”

Picking up the cup, Jack reluctantly took a sip. It wasn’t that he disliked tea, it could even be quite pleasant on occasion, but as he’d already told Ianto, it just wasn’t the same. It was one thing having a cup of tea when it was what he fancied, but another matter entirely when it was the only hot drink he was allowed.

“I just REALLY miss your coffee! It’s torture knowing you’re making it for everyone else but not for me. I have to smell it all day long knowing I won’t get to taste it.”

Ianto immediately felt guilty; he knew how addicted Jack was to his coffee, and how keen his husband’s senses were, especially his sense of smell. He hadn’t meant to torment him.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Jack forced a brave smile.

“I’m the one who got you pregnant.”

“I’m fairly certain we were both involved with that. Anyway, I’ll only have to go without coffee for…” Jack’s face fell. “Another four months. I’m doomed!”

“I’ll stop making coffee. No more here or at home.” It was a spur of the moment decision, and Ianto knew the rest of the team wouldn’t be happy, but it was the only fair thing to do; he had to put Jack first.

“But what about the others?”

“If they want coffee they’ll just have to go to a coffee shop and drink it there,” Ianto said firmly, his mind made up.

“Nosy can’t go to the coffee shop,” Jack pointed out. The resident Fluff was as addicted to Ianto’s coffee as the human members of the team were.

“Damn, I hadn’t thought of that.” Perching on the corner of Jack’s desk, Ianto frowned, deep in thought, trying to find a way around the problem that would keep everyone happy, or at least less unhappy. Then he smiled. “Got it! What we need is an out of the way room for the brewing and drinking of coffee. If we use one of the new medical isolation rooms, the air scrubbers will keep the smell of coffee from spreading through the rest of the Hub. It’ll mean the rest of the team have to drink their coffee where it’s made, but if they know the alternative is no coffee in the Hub at all, I don’t think they’ll complain too much.”

“You’ll still smell of coffee when you make it though, won’t you?”

“I suppose I will a bit,” Ianto agreed. No solution short of giving up making and consuming coffee entirely would be completely perfect.

“You’ll still taste of it too, when you drink some.”

There was a way around that… “I could give it up until the baby’s born,” Ianto offered.

Jack shook his head. “That would be a sacrifice too far. Besides, it’ll mean I can still smell and taste your coffee, just in tiny, harmless doses. Maybe that way the next four months won’t be so bad.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Smiling, Ianto leaned over and gave Jack a coffee flavoured kiss, knowing the amount of caffeine Jack would absorb from it would be too small to have any effect on the baby. With luck they’d all survive this pregnancy.


The End