WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!! The chapter itself is fine, actually, so you can read that if you want. Something in the series finale inspired me to write this chapter, but there is absolutely no mention of that something in the chapter. BUT THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!!
I think that's a fair enough warning…
A/N: This is pretty much another filler chapter, but there's good reason. I had planned on putting the next filler-type chapter in after I posted the next event-filled chapter (which I'm in the middle of writing), but then I saw the "Torchwood" series finale. And… it made me sad. It also made me really want to give Tosh and Owen one last hurrah in my story, since I don't know if there'll be any other place to give them a proper tribute. So, sorry you have to wait a bit longer now for something exciting, but I thought Tosh and Owen deserve a little memorial. They will be missed.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
Oh, and I apologize in advance if I misused the term "disco". If I did – or if I ever misuse any British terminology in the future – please correct me. Thanks!
(And, as always, it doesn't belong to me, I'm not getting paid, etc.)
--
September 16, 2008
"No."
"Oh, really, Owen, it could be fun!"
"No, Tosh."
"You're being a spoil-sport!"
"And you're surprised?"
"I, well, you, but…"
That was what I heard, coming from Tosh's area of the Hub this morning while I was delivering everyone's coffee. It went on like that for a while, too; I gave Ianto, Jack, and Gwen their coffees, and even left Owen's on his desk, yet Tosh and Owen were still arguing over… whatever it was they were arguing over. I really didn't want to interrupt them – that could get awkward, walking in on two people having such a heated discussion, especially just to give them their coffee. So I dawdled as much as I could, at least until I noticed both Jack and Ianto squinting their eyes at me, clearly wondering what the heck I was doing. I mustered up my courage, and planned to sort of sneak in and sneak out before they could even really notice me.
Somewhere along the way, though, that plan failed, because all of a sudden, just as I was about to place Tosh's coffee on her desk, Owen called my name. "Cate!"
I looked up, Tosh's coffee hovering a few centimeters above her desk, still in my hand. I tried to appear nonchalant – you know, like I hadn't been attempting to avoid them. "Hmm?"
"You watched us all on the TV show, right?" he asked.
Confused, I responded, "Um, yeah, I did. Why?"
"So even though you haven't been here all that long yet, you probably know us pretty well, yeah?"
"I, er, well, maybe. Maybe not really well, but, better than I would have at this point if I'd never watched the show, I guess. Why?"
"Do I seem like the Scrabble-playing type of guy to you?" Owen asked, in all seriousness. I saw Tosh roll her eyes. I figured that that was what they'd been arguing about, though I couldn't think for the life of me why.
"Um… Huh?" I really didn't know quite how to respond to that. It's not like I'd ever thought about it before.
"Do I seem like the type of guy who'd like to play Scrabble?" Owen repeated.
"I… I really have no idea, Owen," I answered, shaking my head. "Is there a particular reason you're asking me this?"
"I simply asked him what he thought about the team getting together some night to play Scrabble," Tosh explained, sounding somewhat exasperated. "We spend so much time risking our lives together, I just thought it might be fun to do something… well, fun together instead!"
I nodded. "That sounds like a perfectly logical suggest – "
"Except that Scrabble isn't fun!" Owen interjected. "It's… you have to be able to spell! Any game that requires me to think that much just to win does not fall under the heading of 'fun'. I have no problem with thinking when I'm doing work, but the whole point of doing something fun is not to be doing work!"
"Oh, Owen, it's not asking you to spell anything difficult!" Tosh said. "You can use a word as simple as, as, as 'chair' if you wanted, or 'paper'!"
"She is right, you know," I said. "You don't need to be a spelling bee champion to play Scrabble. Not even to win Scrabble."
"Yeah, but if we all went out to a pub or a disco instead, none of us would need to be able to spell at all, now would we?" Owen replied.
"Is that your suggestion for a team outing?" I asked. Owen nodded.
"But we usually go to pubs or restaurants!" Tosh exclaimed, still frustrated. "I wanted to suggest something different!"
"A disco is different; we've never done that before, not properly," Owen said, quite seriously. Tosh just rolled her eyes.
"You know, I have an idea," I said. "Why don't we put it to a vote. Both of you can give the rest of the team your suggestions, and let all six of us decide what to do, disco or Scrabble. Sound fair?"
Owen and Tosh nodded. "Yeah, well, we were getting to that part," Owen added. "We were just discussing it together first."
"Of course," I said.
Owen started walking away. "Right, well, I'll just go and see what the team thinks, then." He turned around and looked at Tosh. "And don't worry, Tosh, I'll be honorable and let them know your idea, too, even if I don't like it," he said with a small bow.
As he walked away to talk to the rest of the team, I called after him, "I vote Scrabble, by the way, Owen!" I gave him a sweet smile when he turned around; he gave me a sarcastic, "Of course you do." Then he continued on his way.
"Honestly, I swear he isn't happy unless he's being snarky," Tosh sighed.
"Yeah, you have a point… But I'm sure he'll come around," I smiled. "I know I didn't know him personally until I got here, but I really think he's already starting to come around. He's been a lot nicer to me than I expected from watching the first season of the show."
Tosh nodded. "I hope you're right," she said with a somewhat sad smile. Then she looked at me as if something had just dawned on her. "You wouldn't happen to be saying that you're sure he'll come round because you know he will, would you? You didn't, you know… see it on the TV show? Maybe you know something I don't know?"
"Sorry, Tosh, but actually, you probably know more than I do, at least about recent events," I said. "The last thing I saw on the show was when Jack left. Anything that happened after that… I've got no idea."
Tosh nodded. "Right, of course." She gave a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "Besides, even if you did know something I didn't… you probably couldn't tell me, could you?"
I laughed, too. "Probably not. It would mess up the time-space continuum, or bring two universes crashing into each other, or something."
"Bad idea, then," Tosh said with a smile.
"Slightly, I'd say, yeah," I replied, smiling back. "This world's already been forced to repeat time twice. Both times it was for the best, of course, but still, I'd hate to cause it a third time just because I told you something you shouldn't know."
"I don't blame you," Tosh nodded. "That'd be an awful lot to have on your conscience!" Then she made a puzzled face. "Hang on," she said, looking at me, "did you say 'twice'?"
"Uhh…" Oops. So Jack hadn't told his team about the whole thing with the Master. I started racking my brain for a way to explain that comment, but luckily Owen chose that very moment to come back from his vote-taking.
Owen cleared his throat and stood very rigidly in front of Tosh and me, hands behind his back. "So. The votes are in," he said. "And…" He paused, looking from Tosh to me then back again. "Looks like we're playing Scrabble," he finished somewhat lamely. "You win, Tosh."
Tosh beamed. "Thank you, Owen, for admitting it so humbly."
"Oh, I'm not done yet," Owen said with a sly smile. "Because, you see, I have this!" He produced a dictionary from behind his back. "Ianto's lent it to me so I can prepare to be kick-arse at Scrabble. If I'm going to play your board game, Toshiko Sato, I'm going to play to win."
I fought the urge to burst out laughing, while Tosh said – with gritted teeth, I might add, "Alright, Owen. You do that. Have fun."
"Oh, I will," Owen said. "And by the time we play, I will be the best damn Scrabble speller in the world! That's, W-O-R-L-D, world, by the way," he added with a wink. "Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have W-O-R-K work to do." He started to walk away, but turned back. "Oh, right, coffee. Cate, do you – "
"I already left it on your desk," I interrupted. "Though it might be cold by now, sorry."
"That's alright, I'll just warm it up. And by 'it', I mean 'coffee', which is spelled C-O-F-F-E-E. Oh, that's a good one, do you get extra points for double letters?" He smiled brightly. "You know what, Tosh? I think I might enjoy this game after all!" He chuckled to himself as he headed toward his desk.
Tosh watched him walk away with a look of complete disbelief on her face. "He. Is. Impossible."
"For someone who was so adamantly against having to think to play a game, he sure is putting a lot of effort into this," I said thoughtfully. "He's not going to let this drop, is he?"
"Nope. He'll probably be spelling everything until we actually get together to play," Tosh sighed. "Longer, if he loses, I'd bet."
"Aha," I nodded. "Can I suggest, then, that we make this Scrabble day sometime soon? And that maybe we let him win?"
Tosh laughed. "I think that sounds like a good idea."
"Well, I should probably get down to work, and let you do the same," I said. "Here's your coffee… which also probably needs warming up." She thanked me as I set the coffee down on her desk – finally!
I happened to walk by Ianto as I headed down to the vaults. I couldn't help but mention the trouble his dictionary was causing. "You realize he's spelling everything now?"
Ianto nodded. "Yes, well, I didn't give him that dictionary by choice. He just saw it on my desk and took it. Technically he did ask if he could borrow it, but he thanked me for it before I could respond, and walked away."
"Yeah, I can see that happening," I smiled. "Ah well, it's bound to make things interesting around here for a while."
"That's one way to put it," Ianto responded. Then we left each other to our assignments.
Just as Tosh and I suspected, Owen was spelling things for the rest of the day – which doesn't bode well for the days to come. Though, I guess it is kind of funny… but I can see it getting old extremely quickly. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
