It was Easter weekend, but still the Torchwood employees were forced to come into work. They had been especially busy that week – perhaps because it was Easter, the aliens tended to surface due to their love of chocolate? Maybe not, but Myfanwy was extra hyper as well.
When Ianto Jones entered the Hub on Friday morning, the rest of the team was there, apart from Captain Jack himself. That was strange, Jack practically lived in the Torchwood Hub… However, Ianto greeted the others nonetheless.
"Morning, Gwen. Morning, Owen. Morning, Tosh." He recalled the names of his colleagues with monotonous ease as he scanned the room distractedly. "Do you know where Jack is?"
"Honestly, you like Jack so much you don't even give us time to reply!" Gwen replied exasperatedly, though it was just an act – she shipped the boss and his teaboy more than anyone else. "Sorry, I haven't seen him yet this morning. He's probably out on a personal errand. I wouldn't worry about it."
"No, no, I'm not worrying, it's just not like him to be missing, is all. Thanks, Gwen." Ianto flashed his colleague a grateful smile before heading to his work desk, although something caught his eye before he could walk too far… "Hang on a sec, what's that?"
The others all turned to follow the receptionist's line of sight and noticed a giant chocolate egg perched on a shelf, peeking out from behind an alien artefact. It was amusingly out of place amongst such advanced and professional technology, though everyone in the room was too overruled by confusion to laugh at the matter.
"When did that get there?" Owen asked rhetorically, for it was obvious no one would be able to answer him.
"Do you think perhaps the Captain left it here before he disappeared?" Tosh piped up. Her logic made sense.
"Possibly… Maybe there's a message inside it? Maybe he left it for us to open?" Gwen's curiosity added to everyone else's.
"Or it could be an alien egg disguised as an Easter egg, and it's gonna hatch soon and devour us all!" Owen wasn't really being helpful, but his comment lightened the mood a little.
"I don't know… It just looks like a regular chocolate egg to me. If Jack did leave it, then it's probably a present to all of us for Easter." Although Ianto's suggestion was far more ordinary, it still made sense. "Hm. I think we should leave it for now. We should wait until Jack comes back."
"I agree." Tosh added, smiling shyly at Ianto.
"Sure, why not." Gwen also agreed, while Owen huffed about his disregarded remark.
However, Captain Jack did not return that day, or the day after. Most of the team put it down to Gwen's 'personal errand' suggestion, although Ianto couldn't help growing more concerned and anxious by the second. The egg remained untouched as well, since none of them had solved that mystery. By Sunday afternoon, the team had grown restless.
"Right, we don't know where Jack is, and it doesn't look like he's coming back. We could either attempt to track him with absolutely nothing to go on, or we could crack open that egg. I vote for the latter." Owen decided to instigate the action.
"I agree with Owen. I'm too impatient for this." Gwen stood up next to her colleague as they faced the egg.
"I don't want any part of this. I'm worried that it will go wrong, so I'm staying out. I'm sorry." Toshiko remained the smart one of the group, and turned back to her computer screen as she got on with her work.
At this point, everyone turned to look at Ianto as he made his mind up. "Okay, okay, I guess we'll open the egg. But if this does go wrong, it's on you, Owen."
"And if it goes right…?" Owen added.
"Then that's obviously on me." Gwen joked. "Right, let's get on with this, shall we?"
The three Torchwood members dramatically approached the chocolate egg, which they had moved into the centre of the metal floor. It really was massive, as in around four feet tall and three feet wide. Gwen picked up a small hammer, ready to smash it open.
"Would anyone else like to do the honour?" She asked, offering the tool to the others. They shook their heads. "Well, here goes nothing…" Gwen smacked the hammer down with all her force, expecting the egg to be solid, however it was, in fact hollow, therefore it smashed to pieces easily. But this wasn't the most surprising part; when the pieces of shattered chocolate fell to the ground, a living creature sprawled out on the floor too. And it wasn't just any old creature…
"Jack?!" Gwen, Owen and Ianto all spoke in astonished synchronisation.
The Captain gazed up at them, wide-eyed, from the floor. "Hey, hey, hey! You ought to be careful with that!" He gestured to the hammer in Gwen's hand. "Could have taken my head off."
"Yeah, well that wouldn't really matter, would it?" Gwen replied, making reference to their boss' immortality.
"Guess not. Gimme a hand, would you?" At this, Ianto stepped in, offering his hand to Jack as he hoisted the man up from the ground. As the Captain stood tall, he brushed shards of chocolate off his coat, winking at the Welshman.
"What on earth were you thinking, Jack?" Gwen inquired, shaking her head in disbelief.
"It was supposed to be an Easter present for you guys, but you had to go and ruin it by being suspicious of the egg, didn't you?"
"Well duh. We work for an organisation that hunts down aliens, of course we were suspicious of a randomly appearing egg." Ianto replied with his usual deadpan sarcasm.
"Okay, I'm sorry guys. But you gotta admit it was pretty fun, huh?" The team groaned and turned away as Jack grinned at them all. He grabbed a piece of the broken egg off the floor and munched on it. "Hey, this chocolate tastes good!"
A/N:
Happy Easter, everyone! :)