"Jack?" Tosh called out from her station. "We seem to have a bit of a situation."
He hurried out of his office, almost bumping into Gwen as she came over to see what was going on. It had been quiet today. He would almost go as far as to say that it was too quiet. There'd been one Weevil sighting in the early morning and nothing since then. Toshiko's Rift Prediction program didn't forecast any activity for today either.
It was a welcomed change from the last several weeks which had been manic. The Rift had kept them at its beck and call, spewing out as much trouble as it could all hours of the day and night. None of them had managed to get a decent rest all week.
Quiet days like this were always welcome. They still had piles of paperwork to complete as well as a backlog of ignored projects. Most were little things, amusements that kept them busy during quiet spells, but some were vital maintenance that insured the Hub kept running smoothly. But a silent day after a hectic week always made Jack jumpy.
Ianto blamed his leftover adrenaline.
"Human, alien, or other?" Jack asked, resting a hand on Toshiko's shoulder as he peered at her screens. There'd been no alarm set off or phone call that had come through, so whatever the problem was it was bound to be interesting.
"I'm not sure," she mumbled peering closer at her bottom right-hand screen. "They look human. Or at least Humanoid."
"Bipeds," he corrected under his breath. The early 21st century English was still so human-centric. Roll on the 2050s.
On Tosh's screen were several live images from CCTV cameras showing multiple angles of the same place and surrounding area. The security footage was from outside, where it was still raining heavily. It was difficult to work out what Tosh was looking at as the gale-force winds were blowing the rain directly into the camera. For once, Jack was glad he lived on site as everyone else had come in sopping wet and utterly miserable even though they'd all chosen to park in the underground car park for once.
Finally, Jack spotted what Tosh was trying to focus the cameras on. Huddled against a wall was a group of brightly clothed individuals. They seemed to be arguing with each other; one was even brandishing a broken umbrella at another. The tallest to the group was pounding on the closed door they were surrounding.
"Is that the entrance to the Tourist Office?" Gwen asked, leaning over Tosh's head to get a better look.
"Then they're probably just tourists," Owen called out from the autopsy bay. He'd been down there for most of the day, but Jack was sure Owen had been trying to beat Ianto's high score on space invaders rather than doing any paperwork. "Human tourists, that is. I don't even think aliens want to come out in this weather. The only danger they pose to Cardiff is their taste in crappy holiday destinations."
"Oi!" Gwen protested and chucked a pen in Owen's direction as he came up the stairs. It bounced harmlessly off the wall, several feet from him. "Cardiff is a lovely place! There's lots to see, even in the rain. We've got the Red Dragon Centre, the Roald Dahl exhibition in the lovely little Norwegian church-"
"So go and do Tea-Boy's job, Little-Miss-Tourist-Information, if you're so fond of it."
"Where is Ianto?" Jack asked, cutting through Owen and Gwen's petty argument before any more things were chucked across the room. "I thought he was doing some work up there this afternoon."
"He came back down about half an hour ago. Said that no one would be out in this weather today, not even tourists. He's in the Archives now, I think," Tosh replied.
"Fair enough," Jack said, relived that Ianto hadn't been hurt so was unable to open the door for the group. "Okay Tosh, so what's the problem with them upstairs, then?"
It may have been a slow day, but helping lost tourists really wasn't in his job description. Not many tourists even found their way down to the little office on the quay. It wasn't like they were advertised anywhere, except for the little blue plaque by the door, and there was a large Tourist Information office in the Millenium Centre. It was only their cover – a place that they could get takeaways sent to without arousing suspicion. A few of the locals knew it was there, but just like every other strange thing in Cardiff, they ignored the fact that five people seemed to work there every day despite it being rarely open.
"Other than the fact that they're tourists?" Owen asked, having sauntered over to come and crowd around the workstation.
"They've been banging on that door for nearly five minutes. Even the really persistent ones leave before two," Tosh told them, sitting up slightly and knocking the back of her head against Gwen's chin.
"Sorry," Gwen said and pushed Jack out the way so she could get a better look at the screen. "Do you think one of them might be hurt, or something? Or maybe they need our help?"
"Secret organisation? Emphasis on 'secret'," Jack said.
"Big black SUV with Torchwood written on it four times?" Owen shot back.
"I don't think they're hurt," Tosh interjected. "I've rewound the footage and they seem perfectly normal to me. Other than the fact that they haven't stopped banging on the door."
Owen snorted and Tosh looked over her shoulder and gave him a stern look, which just made Jack laugh. She turned her glare on him and he gave her his best apology face with a hint of the classic 'sorry not sorry'. She shook her head and sighed, turning back to her screens.
"They were just walking along the boardwalk, looking at the ships when they saw the office. They entered at 15:34 and spent nine minutes in there before leaving. I don't know what they did in there because the cameras in the office seem to be offline." Tosh glanced up at Jack. He pretended that he knew nothing about that. It didn't work. She just sighed again. "After that they walk up and down the boardwalk and harbour, looking at the boats for almost forty minutes-"
"In that weather?" Owen scoffed. "It's been forecast to piss it down all day. I was right, they are bloody nutters."
Gwen gave him a shove. "Owen!"
"Play nicely, kids," Jack sighed. "What happened next?"
"Glyn came over, you know, the man who comes owns the Water Taxi's, and had a chat with them."
"Isn't he the one Gwen told that we hunt aliens for a living?" Owen asked with a smirk.
"It was sea monsters, actually."
"After that," Tosh said raising her voice to be heard over the two of them, "Glyn finished off for the day and the group came back. When they found the door was locked they started, well, you can see what."
"Okay, that is definitely strange," Jack mused. "Has the facial recognition come up with anything?"
"I can't find a match for any of them, they're covered up too well. If I'd have been able to access the inside camera's I probably would have done better, but…"
"Shit," he muttered under his breath, choosing to ignore Tosh's jibe. "Owen, go grab your med kit, just in case someone's hurt or they do need help. Gwen, standard weapons from the armoury.
She opened her mouth but he cut her off before she could say anything.
"We don't know who or what they are, or what they want. They could just be ordinary human tourists, but we can't know that for sure. We need to be prepared. Grab Ianto's from the armoury too, please." He turned back to Tosh. "I need you to stay here, monitor the situation. Everyone on comms, please. Keep them open at all times."
Jack rushed back to his office and grabbed his own gun and comm unit.
"Ianto?" he asked and was relieved when he heard a prompt 'yes, sir?'. "We've got a problem. I need you back up here."
"I'll be right with you."
A few minutes later, Ianto joined the rest of them around Tosh's station.
Jack turned to address the team as he checked the bullets in his Webly. "Okay, so we've got a group of seven trying to enter the Tourist Office. Looks to be perhaps two adult males, two females, and three children, but without clear CCTV footage, I can only guess. They appear to be human although that might be a disguise. Let's keep to the cover first, shall we? Ianto, I need you to go open the door alone as they've already met you earlier today. They came into the office before when you were up there. What can you tell us about the situation, as t-"
"Sir?" Ianto interrupted softly.
Jack turned to look at him. Ianto met his eyes briefly, before he looked away, choosing to focus on Tosh's screens.
"I don't think they're aliens," he said, a hint of sheepishness in his voice. "They're just Americans."
"What?" a chorused of confused voices asked.
"We don't know that until we can scan them," Jack said.
"I dealt with them earlier," Ianto said slowly.
"We know," Jack replied.
"So, you're trying to tell us that they're breaking down the door for no reason?" Owen interjected sceptically.
"No," he said with a roll of his eyes, sending Owen a withering look. "They have a reason."
"Which is…" Jack prompted.
"I may have told them some slightly misleading information in relation to the harbour. So, they probably aren't too happy with me right now."
"Ianto, what exactly did you say?" Jack asked with a hint of steel in his voice. He may have fully trusted him, more than anyone else in this spatial time zone, but even he was unsure what Ianto could have done to be provoking such a reaction. Each one of them was feeling a little high-strung with the sudden change in Rift Activity and usually, Jack would delight in the sharp wit and the soft pink cheeks with red-tipped ears of the Welshman, but with an unknown threat currently trying their best to break into his home, Jack was nervous.
Ianto finally met his eyes with a grin. Gone was all hint of embarrassment. Instead, Ianto looked rather pleased with himself. "I told them that the 'shitty English weather' has never put off the dolphins and that they could probably still see them quite clearly out in the harbour if they went and looked."
"There are dolphins in the Harbour?!" Gwen practically screeched.
Ianto turned to her with a smile. Jack caught the twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "Yep."
"Fuck off, Tea Boy. No there's not."
"I've never seen them!" Gwen spluttered at the same time.
"Really?" Ianto asked, head cocked to one side. "I don't know how you've managed that considering there's been some there since before Jack joined Torchwood."
Jack opened his mouth to protest but Tosh cut him off.
"Ianto's right. I really don't know how you two have missed them."
Gwen turned wide-eyed to Jack. "I, err," he stuttered. As far as he knew, there were no dolphins in the Bay. Sure, there were a few different Tourist boats, but they went out into the channel if they were animal watching. Even they rarely encountered dolphins or seals, you had to go much further west up to Cardigan Bay if you really wanted a chance at seeing them. He glanced around, looking at the small upward twitch of Ianto's lips and the warm smile that Tosh gave him, feeling like he was missing out on the joke. "I don't…"
Tosh quickly interrupted him before he could confirm or deny anything. "Come on, Jack, don't tell me you've forgotten. You used to walk with me down the boardwalk every morning or evening when I first came here. We'd always see them then."
Jack tried to remember, five years ago for him, only four for Toshiko. In the first few weeks after he'd collected her from a UNIT cell and brought her to Torchwood, he had made it his mission to make sure Tosh got some time outside every day. Most of the time, they'd grab a coffee from Urban Roast and admire the beautiful sunsets or sunrise. Sometimes, they'd sit and talk, other times they sat together in silence as they watched the world go by. They did a lot of people watching – creating stories about those walking by going about their everyday lives where the biggest daily concern at work was whether they accidentally hit reply all on a group email or what to do to the person who kept stealing their lunch from the communal fridge - but not dolphin watching.
It was then that it hit him. He remembered what Ianto had said at the start and the jokes that he had told Toshiko after a bad day all those years ago just to hear her laugh. He hid his own laughter he could feel bubbling up with a cough. He couldn't stop the smile though.
"Yeah, uh, of course. Of course, I remember them. How could I possibly forget? Yeah, dolphins in the bay. Pretty sure there were one or two in 1899, probably in 1869 too. Not that I would have been paying them that much attention back then. There's not as many as there were a few decades back, but yeah, they're still pretty hard to miss."
"Well, I sure as hell haven't seen one," Owen muttered.
"Me neither!" Gwen added.
"I'm not surprised by Owen; he wouldn't notice if I put an elephant in the Hub so long as he gets his coffee-"
"Oi!"
"But I expected better from you, Gwen," Ianto sighed. "I would have thought a fine upstanding Welshwoman like yourself learnt about them at school. Part of our city's culture, they are."
Gwen shook her head. "Grew up in Swansea, didn't I? Cardiff was just our rival football team. It was just a place to go to the rugby or some stuffy production. If you were lucky, you might get to go to the shops, but 'round here was a bit of a dump, to be honest. No offence."
"None taken," Ianto said with a shrug. It was only in the last few decades that Tiger Bay was rejuvenated. These days it was becoming quite the tourist spot, not the out of the way spot that it had been when Jack first joined. "We had to do a report on our local area in Juniors. Something about learning about being good citizens of the community in Year 5. I was assigned Cardiff Bay."
Ianto looked the picture of innocence. Jack wondered how long he could keep it up for. He holstered his Webley and Tosh started closing the excess windows on her screens, leaving just the CCTV footage of the people outside.
"So, what are they, then?" Owen asked, sounding annoyed. "Because even I know that you don't get dolphins 'round here. Unless they were invisible, there'd be tourists everywhere."
"Of course they're not invisible. If they were, I wouldn't have told the tourists to go looking for them. Even I'm not that mean."
"Okay, some kind of perception filter then?" Gwen asked.
"Nope."
"Aliens?"
"Sadly not."
"Well, what kind of invisible dolphins are they then? Whatever they are they can't be natural," Owen scoffed.
"I've already told you, they're not invisible," Ianto sighed. "And no, they're not natural."
"But you said that they're not aliens!" Gwen said.
"Just because it's not natural, doesn't automatically mean it's alien," Tosh said.
"Whatever, keep your secrets," Owen said exasperated now. "But what do non-natural, non-alien dolphins have to do with the people upstairs. Are they a threat or...?"
"You can stand down, Owen. Everyone can stand down for now. No crisis here other than Ianto's warped sense of humour. Tosh, leave the CCTV up to monitor, just in case they do manage to break the door down. If they do, Ianto, you're dealing with them. And the repair bill is coming out of your wages."
"Of course, sir." Ianto rolled his eyes but didn't bother hiding the mischievous smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"But what about the dolphins?" Gwen asked.
"They'll still be there. It looks like the rain's easing off too if you want to take a look. I'm sure you'll be able to find them much easier than those idiots up there."
"Ianto," Jack warned, but he couldn't put his heart into it. it had been a slow day after all and winding up a few unlucky tourists as well as Gwen and Owen wasn't that big of a crime really.
"Can we?" Gwen asked turning to him, eyes wide with childish glee.
"Sure, as long as you're not planning on dragging me out in this weather. Keep your comms on you just in case something does come through."
Gwen grinned. "Come on, Ianto-"
"I think Ianto better stay here. He's done enough damage for one day. And stay away from those tourists, too."
"Fine," Gwen sighed and nudged Ianto in the ribs. "Grounded by the boss, eh?"
"For my sins. At least I can get you a nice cup of coffee when you return. Only if you see them, though."
"Thanks, pet. Tosh, you coming?"
"Not today thanks, Gwen. Maybe some other time, though."
"Okay, come on Owen."
Jack sauntered back to his office; the current crisis adverted. There'd be a new one soon enough. It was nice to hear his team happy and safe for once, with no pressing matters. They didn't get enough off days in this job.
He could hear the rapid type of Toshiko's keys as she focused on her latest side project, now that the Rift predicter was working a good 95% of the time. Gwen and Owen were bickering in the background. It seemed the grumpy medic wasn't getting out of Gwen's little field trip. When he heard Ianto's voice join in, egging on Owen, he decided that he should probably do his job.
"Ianto! My office," he called out.
Gwen shouted her goodbyes as she hustled Owen out through the armoury. With all the rain, the invisible lift was currently off limits except for emergencies. That left the underground car park as the best exit from the Hub to avoid the tourists at their main entrance.
Jack flicked on the CCTV from his station. The tourists were still huddled around the door. It was unlikely that they would succeed in breaking it down, despite their best efforts. The door may look like it was made of wood, but in reality, it was triple-reinforced. Nothing short of a small explosion would get through. Instead, he skimmed the cameras to find Gwen and Owen huddled up together against the wind and the rain as they walked to the boats. It was going to end in tears, and he was going to make sure he was uncontactable when it happened.
As much as he hated the weather outside right now, he might brave it for the shit storm that was coming when they found out the truth. He was sure the rain might draw some Weevils out from the sewers that he could go and investigate. He should probably send Tosh home early too. Although she had played along in Ianto's little prank, she had helped him out in the end.
He was definitely leaving this mess for Ianto to clean up, after all, he had started it. Just as he was wondering where the Welshman had gotten to, Ianto walked in carrying a tray of coffees.
"Shut the door behind you," Jack sighed, a smile ghosting his lips. Ianto knew too well how to push Jack's buttons.
"Yes, sir." Ianto kicked the door shut with a smile as Jack reached out to grab his cup.
"So," Jack sighed appreciatively as he took his first sip of coffee, "Dolphins in the bay?"
The corner of Ianto's mouth upturned slightly as he shrugged. "Well, there are."
"You know that, and I know that, but I'm not too sure that Owen and Gwen will be too pleased with you when they find out what it is that you've sent them out in this weather looking for."
Ianto shrugged again as he perched on Jack's desk.
"I should punish you, but I think you'd enjoy it too much."
"Maybe we should find out then."
"Later," Jack laughed. "So when are you planning on telling them that the dolphins are made of wood?"
Author's Note: For those of you that didn't grow up near a harbour - I suspect this will be most of you, to which I can only say 'sorry not sorry' - a Dolphin is an (often wooden) structure that is used for berthing and mooring vessels. Cardiff Bay currently has five visible dolphins, each made of four connected wooden beams where boats can be moored. These structures have probably been there since the 19th century, but are rarely in use these days.