"Morning, Tosh."
"Good morning, Owen."
Owen came up beside Tosh and leant on her computer desk, pulling a sheet of paper out of his backpack. "So, are you ready for a little competition today, Tosh?"
"Always ready," she said with her usual friendliness, pulling out her own sheet of paper with its printed grid. "The real question is, are you ready to lose your fridge privileges for a week?"
"I don't know about that," he replied, "but I've got my bingo card at the ready, looking forwards to having the firewalls lifted once more on my work computer."
Tosh raised an eyebrow, her gaze filled with uncharacteristic competitiveness. "Then let's play."
It wasn't long before the game really started.
"Morning, everyone," Gwen said as she stepped into the Hub. "What's occurring?"
"What's occurring," Owen muttered under his breath, crossing a square off on his card. He reached over and grabbed a slice of cold pizza that had been left on the coffee table from the previous night; Tosh ticked a box off on her card.
"Oi!" Owen said as he saw what she was doing. Tosh didn't say anything in return, only ticking off another box that simply said, Oi.
"Good morning, team!" Jack's voice ran out around the Hub as he came out of his office, sleeves rolled up and clapping his hands together, closely followed by a dishevelled Ianto who was tucking his shirt back into his trousers.
"Middle square," Tosh and Owen said in unison.
Amazingly, no one else in the team caught on. Admittedly Gwen was a bit mystified when, upon showing a wedding catalogue to Tosh, Owen punched the air, and Jack had never had one member of the team volunteer to monitor Myfanwy's toilet habits let alone two. Ianto raised an eyebrow when Tosh gave a gleeful giggle as he said "Diolch" as Gwen passed him the plate of biscuits, but Janet had never been less cooperative.
"The one time I want her to cause a fuss!" Owen yelled, slamming his hand against the glass once more, still failing to disturb the sleeping weevil.
The afternoon brought a whole new selection of successes for both competitors.
"Wait – don't sit there!" Ianto shouted as Gwen sat in her usual chair in the briefing room.
"Why not?" She said as Ianto went bright red and Jack grinned. "Wait a moment, what am I sitting on?" She pulled something out from underneath her; it was a pair of handcuffs. "Jesus Christ, you two!" She shouted, tossing them onto the table and shuddering. Tosh smiled sympathetically, before crossing off Handcuffs found in unusual places on her sheet under the table.
Five minutes into briefing gave Owen the chance to tick off his Gwen and Jack argue square, and they both ticked off Ianto squirms and pretends he and Jack aren't playing footsie.
"How many of yours are about those two?" Owen asked Tosh out of the corner of his mouth.
"Eighty percent," Tosh replied immediately – and smugly.
Owen crossed off Tosh recites percentages.
By mid-afternoon they were equal, each of them one square away from completing their cards.
"Come on, Gwen," Owen muttered under his breath from the autopsy bay. "Call Rhys, call Rhys, call Rhys!"
"Any minute now," Tosh said, eyeing the CCTV footage from the archives. "Any minute... yes!" she exclaimed, adjusting her glasses. "Now, come on you two – clothes off!"
"What the hell?" shouted Owen, running up to see what she was doing.
"I've nearly won," she said proudly, showing the last unticked box on her bingo square.
Jack and Ianto have a quickie in the archives.
"Not if I have anything to do with it," Owen grumbled, running to the wall and smashing his fist into the fire alarm.
"That's cheating!" Tosh shouted, her head falling into her hands as the Jack and Ianto on the CCTV feed jumped at the cold water of the sprinklers. "Unless – no, they're still going! I'm still winning, Owen, I'm still winning!"
"Rhys?" came Gwen's voice from where she was sorting through some missing persons papers. "Rhys, sweetheart, I'm so sorry but I'll be a bit late home from work today, the fire alarm went off at work. No, nothing to worry about, just these bloody sprinklers ruining everything!"
"Yes!" Owen shouted, grabbing his damp paper and pointing the final, unchecked square. "I've won! I've won, Tosh! Ha! Now you have to lift those parental controls from my computer!"
"No, no, no," said Tosh indignantly. "I've won! Those two started before Gwen rang Rhys, so I won!"
"I don't think so! My square was just for Gwen to ring Rhys, which was ticked off the moment she picked up that phone. Yours, on the other hand, requires for said 'quickie' to be complete – and no one, not even those two, can complete that fast."
"Fine," Tosh huffed. "I'll lift those parental controls." She pondered for a moment, then stuck out her hand. "Good game."
Owen grinned, shaking it. "Good game."
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