Title: Toshiko in Charge
Author: caz251
Fandom: Torchwood
Summary: Toshiko takes charge of Torchwood 3 when Jack leaves. Warning(s):
Rating: G
Parings/characters: Tosh, mentions team torchwood
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters ... unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while.
She had never understood before, not really anyway, the burden that fell on Jack's shoulders, but now since he had left, she knew all to well. First had been the power struggle that had ensued over who would lead the team, Owen as much as he liked to be in control or to bark orders at people had immediately pulled himself out of the running, stating that he couldn't focus on their health if he was worrying about everything else as well. He had however put Toshiko forward for the position, explaining that she had seniority and therefore should lead the team.
Toshiko agreed on the condition that Ianto dealt with the other agencies in her stead, knowing that UNIT would not wish to speak with her. It wasn't something that Ianto had a problem with, surprisingly neither did Owen, Ianto had after all been with Torchwood just as long as he had just not necessarily with Torchwood three.
Gwen had disliked the idea completely, explaining that Jack had left her as second in command before he had taken his leave of them, something Ianto disproved by throwing her own words back at her. If Jack had been leaving and had to told her so, then why had she asked if they had seen him and insisted that something had taken him. She quickly backed down on that point, after all she had been caught in her lied and hadn't wanted to take it any further, after all Jack wasn't there to get her out of trouble with the others.
Instead she had insisted that Jack had hired her to fill Suzie's position, which as she understood it was second in command, things didn't seem to be going her way though as then Owen turned on her. He then explained that while she may have been recruited to fill the gap left by Suzie, it wasn't to fill her role, Gwen had never worked on any of the weapons and certainly didn't have the knowledge to lead the team in Jack's absence.
She hadn't been happy, but had eventually resigned herself to the fact that it w as Tosh who was in charge. The power struggle had only been the first of Toshiko's problems in her role, the amount of aliens that were coming to Cardiff seem to have doubled and UNIT was trying to pull rank and take over. She had lead the team well though, and without Jack's all knowing attitude they had had to find other ways to keep Cardiff safe. It had meant that in the time while Jack had been away, Toshiko in her spare time had created a variety of new things that team could use whilst out in the field.
Whilst her tenure as the leader of Torchwood three had only been a few months, she now understood what Jack had to go through, and she was determined to help him lessen the load some. She could help with some things, but she wouldn't be taking on the job of leading the team any time soon if she could help it. While it had been a rewarding job, it wasn't one of the most relaxing, and now that Jack was back she was going home to sleep more than two hours at a time.