DISCLAIMER: Do not own Jack or Torchwood. Wish I did. But who doesn't?
It had been a long an exhausting night and Jack wanted nothing more than to wash everything that had happened to him, to them,
It had been a long an exhausting night and Jack wanted nothing more than to wash everything that had happened to him, to them, down the drain. The showers at Torchwood were on the fritz, so he had rented a room at a nearby hotel. He was thinking of this as sort of a mini vacation – something he had not done in a long time.
The room was sparse, but comfortable looking. There was a table in the corner with two chairs. Jack sat his keys down and, taking off his jacket, peered into the bathroom. With it's regulation hotel shower curtain, it would do just fine.
He walked back and threw his coat across the bed. It never failed to amaze him how imposing it looked when it was spread out. It was the second one of it's kind that he had owned, having worn the other one quite thin. He still had the one from his first days of Torchwood, of course, but that was nothing compared to this coat and the adventures it had been on. He laughed a little in the back of his throat at the memories.
Unbuttoning his cuffs, he sat on the bed and used the remote to flick on the television that sat on the dresser across from him. Nothing but reality shows were on, and he snorted before flicking it back off.
He sighed heavily and thought about going back to the Hub. He hadn't been away from there in so long that he didn't know what to do now that he was. He had been gone for so long, he had missed them all. Really missed them. The fight to get back here had been long, but so worth it. Before he had closed up for the night, he had called the team one by one to invite them here to talk, to get away. But no one had gotten back to him as of yet.
Figuring that this was the time to go ahead and wash the grime of time away, he stripped and went to the bathroom, noticing that the towels had been laid out just so-so, making him think of Ianto and all his obsessive habits.
He turned the water on and stood, watching himself in the mirror as the steam began to fill the room. He sighed and stepped under the stream, reaching to adjust the temperature of the water. It was soothing – just the thing he needed after all the trouble that he had gone through lately. The heat surged a little and Jack was forced to adjust the temperature again. He had been showering in the Hub for so long that he had forgotten how regular showers worked. There was another surge and Jack yelped. He could hear the shower from the room on the other side of the wall turn on, followed by two muted voices. There was giggling and the sounds of elbows and knees hitting the wall before he began to hear low moaning noises.
Jack leaned against the tile, feeling more alone than even before. The water began to run cold and he got out, pulling the fluffy white cloth around him. His hair was still dripping from holding it under the water, but he didn't care. He made it to the bed and flopped there, wondering if there was any takeaway place that was still open. He opened the drawer to the table beside his bed and found a binder under the Bible that was, as it stated, placed by the Gideons. It had a few menus in it and he perused them, stretching out across the bed and managing to knock his greatcoat on the floor as he did so. He was dialing the phone when there was a knock at the door.
Jack placed the phone back on the cradle and went to answer the knock, tucking the towel so it rode rather low on his hips. He took a deep breath and turned the handle to see the knocker standing there.
"Oh, it's you," Jack said quietly. "Care to come in?"
"Sure," the person on the other side answered. "After I got your call, I thought neither of us needed to be alone."
Jack stepped aside and ushered the visitor in. This night had taken a decidedly interesting turn.