Tosh typed away, her hands creating an intricate melody with the keyboard, the only accompaniment a steady dripping of water coming from the damp that perpetually surrounded their underground base. Jack was out on a date with Ianto and probably wouldn't return until morning, meaning she could probably pull another all-nighter without Jack knowing; recently he had decided that she was working too hard and had to go home every night which meant no pulling an all-nighter like she was doing right now.
It wasn't that she felt she had to work because technically, Jack controlled her welfare, but she'd worked through that years ago. It was because there was nothing to do when she went home. She had no social life, and no family, so what was there to do? She tried reading programming manuals but she was an expert in her field, and used alien code languages that were far more efficient than anything today. Sometimes she hacked to keep up her skills, but there was no need; she did that enough anyway.
So Tosh began working late, leaving at eleven or twelve, before staying longer and longer. She hated going back to a lonely apartment, knowing the only thing there was a bed and clothes. Knowing that they signified her life outside of Torchwood; if it fell, there would be nothing for her. So naturally she threw herself into her work, filling holes with code and algorithms.
Soon she was pulling all-nighters most nights, desperate for something to fill the voids, because if she didn't fill them she'd be left with time to think and that would lead to her wondering what was left of her life, and that would make her acknowledge the holes in her life, and she would become dissatisfied, and she couldn't change that, because of UNIT. So she avoided thinking about her life like the plague, and worked to fill the time.
Shaking away her thoughts, Toshiko worked diligently on the code her fingers twitching rapidly, working well into the evening. By the time she finished perfecting the code, it was four in the morning, sighing, she logged off and exited the hub; she'd need to have a shower and breakfast and painstakingly apply makeup so no-one could see how the shadows under her eyes had deepened as well as buying a coffee before she got there, just to keep her awake until Ianto gave her another one.
Doing all that took her around an hour and a half – still too early to go into work. If she got in before seven, Jack'd have her head and send her home until eight. So she decided to go for an early-morning swim; that was what normal people did, right? Walking to the sea pool from her apartment didn't take very long – she'd really have to work on not checking the time when she was trying to waste it.
Swimming, she thought, was refreshing, she had been so into it, that in the end, she ended up ten minutes late – ten minutes late! Apparently everyone else was having the same thoughts, first Ianto as she picked up her coffee and headed past him into the Hub, with the usual greetings exchanged. The words may not've changed but his expression was incredulous, it was just that he had more tact than to mention it, knowing she'd get an earful from the rest of the team.
Ianto's predictions were right as she the cog door rolled away, leaving Jack and Owen staring at , it seemed was not about to loose his reputation over one small occurrence, and so was quick with a remark to shove Jack out of his daze, because although Owen would bite Jack's head off half the time, the two men shared a certain camaraderie that came with the heartbreak that could only transpire from having loved and lost, repeatedly. "Wow, Tosh. I thought it was Gwen coming through that door. I was waiting for her to get in so I could go see what illness was so debilitating that you couldn't get out of bed."
While Tosh was rather taken back, Owen's remark fulfilled its purpose: his reputation was yet to be tarnished and Jack had somehow managed to snap out of whatever daze had taken hold of his intellect. Smoothly stepping in, and saving himself further embarrassment, Jack stepped in with a comment worthy of the Harkness reputation, "You're late. I guess you were tired after a late night… Or a certain someone may've tried to change your mind about going to work."
At that address, delivered with the full force of the Harkness charm, Toshiko blushed bright red, and in an effort to communicate to Owen that she had done nothing of the sort, because, - she wasn't quite sure why, but it had to be a good reason if she was going out of her way and directly opposite. It turned out that her 'communication' - if she could call it that- was a mumble about 'swimming' and 'losing track of time'.
Still blushing slightly, Tosh moved over to her desk where she started work once again. Typing away, Tosh created an intricate melody with her keyboard, this time with accompaniment that threatened to drown out the melody, the harmony of bustle as the accompanists forgot the melody was there, waiting to be heard.