Title: Whodunnit
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,056 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 492 - Wrench
Summary: Travelling in space can be a dangerous occupation.


‘Another big job out of the way,’ Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief as he'd stacked the last of the boxes in the cargo hold.

‘Just another one of those unexpected necessities of traveling long distances through deep space,’ Ianto replied. ‘Speaks to the fact that we went way overboard. To be honest, we've got so much stuff now that we don't even have room for it all,’ he replied.

‘Well, we are going to be out in deep space for a very long time,’ Jack said. ‘The next stop is 472 parsecs away. If we didn't stock up on this much stuff we'd go hungry long before we got there.’

‘I know,’ Ianto replied, ‘though it's still a big job, and a very long time to be out in the depths of space with nothing but each other for company.’

‘It'll give you plenty of time to catch up on your reading and work on your tan,’ Jack said with a teasing voice.

‘Tanning oil,’ Ianto said, ‘I knew we forgot something. Do you think we've got time to go back and get some?’

Jack rolled his eyes and smiled. ‘My husband, the comedian.’

‘I do my best,’ Ianto replied, nodding with a smile. Then he looked at the dials on the console. ‘Still all the pre-flight checks to do,’ he said with a resigned sigh.

Jack grinned. ‘And I know how much you love those.’

‘Safety first, Ianto replied. He checked a couple of Post-it notes he'd tacked to the flight deck, full of reminders of things he might forget.

Jack looked over his shoulder. ‘I think I might go down to the loading bay and just double check that we have everything in there properly fastened and tied down. I'm sure it's all fine but I just feel better knowing I've doubled and triple checked it. We're not used to having stuff just lying around in the loading bay because we’ve run out of space in the cargo hold.’

‘That's fine,’ Ianto replied. He checked his Post-it notes again. ‘We're not going to get cleared for take-off for at least another hour so take your time.’

Jack gave him a salute. ‘Aye aye, Captain.’



Ianto took the meticulous time he always did, going through all the pre-flight procedures necessary to operate a mid-sized spaceship. There’d been a time when Ianto wouldn't have known the flight deck from the cargo hold, let alone been able to fly a ship or know how it worked. Most of the complex mechanics were still far beyond him and he still relied on Jack to help him repair the ship and make sure it was in good working order, but he knew a lot more than he did when he’d first started out. He was practically a seasoned traveller now.

He went through all of the pre-flight checks a second time, just to be sure, and then checked his watch. It had been well over an hour, where the hell had Jack gotten to? Ianto paused and looked out the front windscreen of the spacecraft and then thought about this for a moment. Jack had probably been finished ages ago and was currently curled up having a nap, or perhaps to treating himself to a massively oversized bowl of ice-cream sundae that he made for himself without even bothering to ask whether Ianto might like one, and that it was tucked away in the freezer ready for him to indulge in just as soon as they were out of the atmosphere. That sounded about right, knowing how well his husband liked to skive off and treat himself to things.

Instead of just calling over the intercom to ask where Jack was, his gaze fell upon one of the console readouts. ‘Hmm,’ he said, pondering it. That was strange. Why hadn’t the loading bay doors been properly sealed and locked yet? If Jack had been down there securing all their cargo it would have been the last thing he would have done before he finished and wandered off. Jack was many things, but when it came to spaceship safety he took that very seriously. There was simply no way Jack would have left the loading bay door unlocked.

He clicked on the intercom. ‘Jack, are you still down in the loading bay? I see it's still unlocked. You having a nap down there?’ When he didn't get a response he heaved a sigh. ‘Jack…’ he muttered. Not only was he clearly not in the loading bay but he’d left it unlocked which probably meant that he wasn't even on board the ship. No doubt he'd probably run into someone in the street who had seen him loitering through the open loading bay doors, that he knew from a thousand years ago and had been chatting to them for the last 45 minutes, completely forgetting where they were meant to be. Although they didn't have clearance to leave the air space for an hour they also had a designated time slot in which they had to be gone. Only Jack would forget that, busy regaling in fun times and pranks he’d once done a century ago with somebody that he hadn't seen forever. Ianto groaned again, pushing himself out of the flight deck chair. ‘Looks like I'm just going to have to go down there and haul you out myself,’ he said.

Ianto expected to find the loading dock empty with no Jack inside. That was the sort of thing he'd come to expect from his sometimes unpredictable husband. Instead he was very much surprised to see Jack exactly in the middle of it. What was even more surprising was that he was lying down face flat to the floor completely unmoving.

‘Jack? Jack!’ He rushed over to where Jack's body lay prone on the ground checking him over for any signs of injury, gently shaking him to try and rouse him and rolling him onto his side in case he couldn't breathe. He eventually found the source of the injury – a nasty gash on the back of Jack's head that had been bleeding and hidden from view until Ianto had rolled him onto his side. As Ianto tried to roll him onto his back, the wound grazed the floor by accident. Jack let out a pained groan, coming around finally.

‘Jack? What happened? Are you okay?’

Jack took a moment to compose himself, trying to remember where he was, what had happened and why was Ianto hovering over him. ‘Ianto?’

‘I'm here, it's okay.’ He quickly scanned the loading bay, trying to understand exactly what had happened since it seemed clear that Jack was still a bit confused about the whole situation. One thing he did notice was suddenly the absence of a few boxes that he remembered specifically putting in one corner of the loading bay. They'd been there an hour ago and now they were gone. He didn't actually think Jack had tried to move them. That made no sense. They simply had nowhere else to put them and that was why they were in the loading bay in the first place, but nor did anything look like it had been toppled and Jack had accidentally come undone, getting whacked out by a falling box.

‘Jack what on earth happened?’

‘I don't know,’ Jack said, still sounding a little bit groggy and surprised by his own situation. ‘I was down here double checking all the straps, making sure everything was tied down right and then… Ow! His injuries began to make themselves known to him, distracting him from trying to tell Ianto exactly what he could remember. ‘Was it an earthquake? Something hit me in the back of the head. That's all I remember.’

Ianto took an even more investigative look around the loading bay. Something or someone must have been here, and as his eyes carefully scanned from one corner to the other, he spotted something metal on the floor where it shouldn't have been. A wrench. A wrench that belonged in a toolbox that belonged in a crate in the back corner of the loading bay, fixed to the wall. Not lying about abandoned and with what distinctively looked like little flecks of red. Ianto left Jack’s side for a moment, walked over to where he spotted it and gingerly picked it up by the handle inspecting it closely. A nearby box had the top torn off it, though all the detergents and cleaning products inside looked untouched. He ran through his memory bank at what has been in the missing boxes and came up with a plausible theory. ‘I'm afraid it was Mr Robber in that loading bay with the wrench.’

Jack groaned, reaching back to feel the brand new lump on the back of his head that was the size of an orange and bleeding where the skin had split. ‘Damn. What did they steal?’

‘Nothing overly valuable. Food supplies, mostly and some battery packs by the looks of things. Something tells me they're not going to be reselling any of that on the black market.’

‘More like desperately poor and starving,’ Jack agreed, sitting up slowly and wishing everything didn't swirl so wildly every time he moved his head. He made a woozy noise and Ianto was there steadying him by the shoulders.

‘Easy Jack. You're going to have one hell of a concussion after a whack on the head with this, he said, referring to the abandoned weapon of choice, pilfered from a toolbox of many such items Jack kept in the loading bay for minor repairs. The traces of Jack's blood on it glistened bright red. No question it was what had knocked him out cold. ‘They must have slipped on board hours ago when we restocked, then waited for the right moment to offload what we'd just bought.’

Jack nodded, then instantly regretted the motion, lurching into Ianto’s side where his husband was there with a reassuring grip. ‘They probably assumed we'd go back into the city for a meal and give them plenty of time to take what they wanted.’

‘Except you came back just to double check the locks before we took off and they panicked.’

Jack grimaced as Ianto had found a handkerchief in his pocket and began pressing it gently to the bleeding wound. ‘The didn't have to whack me out though,’ he complained, feeling a headache coming on. ‘They could have just run for it.’

‘I guess they didn't know how dangerous you might be and if you wouldn't attack them first.’

‘And now we're going to have to go and restock all over again before we can leave.’

‘Well, I'm going to restock our supplies,’ Ianto replied. ‘You're going to take a nice long lie down with some industrial strength painkillers and a few temporary stitches in that head wound. No more markets for you today.’

‘I'll be fine,’ Jack assured him, wobbling into Ianto's arms as he made a clumsy attempt at standing up. ‘In a bit,’ he clarified.

Ianto gave him a knowing look. ‘Uh huh…’

Jack growled at his own defencelessness. ‘They could have at least cracked my skull properly and killed me.’ At least then he wouldn't have the monster headache from hell. He'd be right as rain and ready to go again. One of the few benefits of immortality.

‘They were clearly desperate, not murderous,’ Ianto replied. ‘Let's be grateful for that.’ There were lots of nasty operators out there in the universe who wouldn't think twice about shooting and taking what they wanted. Even on planets where crime was low, there were always a few bad apples.

Jack hissed against as Ianto gently inspected the head wound with light fingertips. ‘Ow!’

‘That's going to take some ice to get the swelling down. You've got a real conker there.’

‘Tell me something I don't know,’ he complained, though he let Ianto's arms guide him out of the bay and into the confines of their ship, no doubt headed first for the bathroom for some traveller’s first-aid before attempting to tuck him up in bed. ‘We really need some better security,’ he said. ‘Like a guard dog. We could get a guard dog.’

‘Nice try,’ Ianto said, ‘but you’re not going to get a pet out of this.’