44

They had parked near the suspected site of the portal. Once they had uncoupled the machine the truck drove off with Rhys waving happily as he left the team to complete their work. Gwen had kissed him and told him she would see him at home after shift like this was no big deal and they both knew he was heading for the nearest petrol station to get a pie now she was out of the way. He loves his pasties that one.

Owen had flipped the switch after fiddling with things and looking impressive, while in the meantime Toshiko had calmly changed the switches to the correct settings to make this a negatively (not a positively) charged super magnet.

They all stood staring t the machine while wondering if it was working then Owen turned to say something only to gape at what he was seeing. He had felt his scalp tickling and felt it was just the wind but now saw that Ianto's hair was standing up on end like a scared cat. Then he glanced at the third person there with them while the other two were at a safe distance with the tech gear.

Gwen's long hair stood up high and came to a point. He could not help it, he started to giggle. Ianto swivelled on his heels to look at her as well, his eyebrows rising as he also took it in and then said softly "all good Gwen?"

She stared at them with annoyance "You both look ridiculous, how are you doing that? Is it a cat thing?"

"A cat thing? Like… Owen is one in disguise too?" Ianto choked out as both men share a look and they snorted and giggled as Owen complained about them not being able to take photos as they could not have any electronics too close to the super magnet in case it stuffed things up.

"TOSH" Ianto yelled across the field to Tosho who stood back by the SUV with Jack "Take a photo of us with our hair!"

Toshiko gave a thumbs up and raised her tablet. Gwen went to step back but Ianto seized her, pulling her between the two men and they all smiled for the camera, then she looked at each man again before slowly raising her hands to touch her hair, shrieking with laughter as she finally got the joke and telling them that they were all fucktards.

"Do you think it's working?" Own yelled across the field after a while.

"Maybe we need to turn it on and off, so it sort of… fluxes?" Toshiko asked Jack as she sat at a safe distance monitoring the sight of the rift ribbon that was only faintly detectable now. "Maybe if we do that' it will dissipate better?"

"Can't hurt I guess. You might be right. A continuous one way or the other might just delay the feed. By fluxing as you put it, it might do better to confuse the root source" Jack agreed, "I will go in and tell them. Their coms are down now it's at full capacity and I am sick of yelling."

Jack walked confidently over and discussed Toshiko's theory which Owen agreed with, starting to turn off the machine. They then watched as the portal started to open, then they hurriedly turned it on again. "Shit. Was that one trying to get through?"

"OK… let's not try that again" Ianto said softly, stepping back from the spot where something had appeared like a ghostlike apparition for a moment. That had been far too fucking close for comfort.

They left the machine on, retreating to watch at a safe distance. Jack let Owen take the SUV for some fish and chips, then they all sat on the ground in the evening air having a might time picnic that had them giggling s they passed around the sodas.

It was one of the nicest staff meals they had enjoyed in a while to be honest. Moses managed to snavel two pieces of fish, diligently blown on by Owen of course and they all laid back to look at the stars.

Time seemed to drift.

It was just past midnight when the machine made a weird sound and then they started to smell a metallic burning. Ianto was the first to sit up and stare over at it "Fuck. I think it's on fire folks."

"Bummer" Owen said dreamily, then focused with a yelp, leaping up to run to the SUV for their fire extinguisher. They all got to watch Owen dance about, yelling the instructions for using the extinguisher out loud as he tried to get it going. Ianto face-palmed as the hours of training they all took on how to use one of those proved the little fucker never listened during class.

"Pull the pin… like a hand grenade ya twat" Jack yelled at him, laughing so much he could only get to his hands and knees. Finally Owen got it primed and he fired it at the machine as it slowly wound down and made a horrible screeching sound as it died.

Toshiko rose and walked over to check the levels of the rift and everyone waited for her patiently. Well, almost everyone but Moses is never patient about things. He is full cat after all, he yowled for her to hurry up. After a few minutes her smile told them all they needed to know.

"Great, home for a nice hot bath everyone" Jack said as he clapped his hands.

"God, not all together I hope. I had a nightmare about that once" Owen quipped and they all roared with mirth as he made degusted vomitous noises.

"Now now Owen, no need for thst. You would not fit in a bathtub with me and Jack… we take up so much room we have to sometimes lay on top of one another" Ianto said and Owen shrieked as he slapped at him.

They headed home leaving the melted mess behind as some sort of monument to a day well spent it was Moses who finally spoke into the silence of the vehicle's interior. His voice surprised them all, not only as he spoke out loud so everyone could hear but for the soft pretty vowels that were so much like Ianto's.

"That was good fish. Let's do that again, but without the fire?"

"Sounds good old man" Owen agreed as he gathered him into his lap.

Sounds good.