Heaven is a Half-Pipe

The door to the Hub rolled open to reveal Gwen Cooper pressed up against the wall. She was holding her gun in both hands, pointing it towards the ceiling, as she arched her neck around the opening and quickly scanned the room.

"Owen?" She called out nervously. She had arrived in record-breaking time. His pain-filled voice had sounded on the edge of consciousness, when he had called her. It had been hard for her to follow what he was saying; she only knew that he was hurt although he didn't say by what. She hadn't been able to get that out of him.

"Owen!" Her voice had a hint of panic to it now.

"Gwen?" The reply was weak, confused sounding.

"Where are you, Owen?" She was creeping slowly into the Hub her gun held in front of her.

"Ah, Gwen." A voice to her left. She spun round.

"Ianto? What's going on?" She lowered her gun.

"Why don't you go ask Owen?" His body was shaking slightly. "It sounds so much better coming from him." The end of the sentence was partly swallowed in a snort of laughter. "He's in the autopsy lab."

Ianto walked away, glancing upward as his shoulders quivered in an attempt to restrain his mirth. Looking up Gwen could make out Jack on the balcony above with a wide grin across his face. Feeling a bit out of the loop she holstered her gun and made her way over to the lab.

Once inside she could see Owen sat on the autopsy table with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was pressing an ice-filled tea-towel on the right one. He glanced up as she entered, his cheeks turning an interesting shade of pink.

"Um, hi Gwen."

"Owen, are you alright? What happened? I got here as fast as I could. Are you OK? What's going on?" She rushed to his side, the words tumbling from her mouth as she approached.

"I'm fine. Just bruised my ankle, that's all." He wasn't looking at her.

"What happened? I thought you were dying when you called me. You sounded as though you were in agony."

"I was, but then Ianto and Jack got back early and they sorted me out so it's OK, you can go now. Get back to Rhys. He must be wondering where you are." He seemed to be studying the far wall.

"But what happened? How'd you hurt your foot?"

"Ankle," he corrected. "I, um, fell, wasn't too serious. Sorry to have bothered you. It was nothing really"

"Oh I don't think that is entirely true, is it Owen?" Jacks voice boomed from the gallery above them. Beside him Ianto could be seen sniggering into his hand.

This is so weird, Gwen thought. Ianto doesn't usually act like this. What is going on?

"Well, um yes, no, it is, sort of," he tailed off looking up at the giggling pair. "I'm not getting out of this am I?" He huffed deeply, then bought his gaze to face Gwen.

"Well, you see," his face was slowly getting redder, "I was in here the other day and I noticed a ramp near the kitchen and I thought that it might be fun to try and skateboard down it. But I thought I'd wait till they was no one around as I haven't boarded in a while and it didn't go quite as I planned and I, er, fell off."

Gwen choked back a laugh. "You tried to skateboard?"

He winced, "yep."

"And you fell off?"

"Yes," he practically spat the word at her, as she started to laugh. "Last time I ask any of for help," he mumbled as he rolled himself off the table and started to hobble up the stairs.

"Don't worry, Gwen," Ianto was still giggling manically above. "The CCTV captured everything. We're just waiting for Tosh to arrive!

Based on a scene in Up Close in the Hub with Naoko Mori where Burn Gorman has a skateboard in one hand saying that there is a ramp out the back. The clip is available on the BBC Torchwood website.