Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad

Chapter 13

Fortunately for everyone, the day had indeed been calm and quiet after the rough start of the morning monster hunt. Turlough had opted to go home at lunch to nurse his wounds and relax. The rest had ordered Chinese and done as little as possible. The two Hub residents had been back to nearly 100% by late afternoon, at about which time Gwen had noticed that the new Christmas ornaments were all pictures, and had started minutely examining them. Jack and Martha had joined in, the three finding a mix of images from many sources and time periods. Some were funny, others bordering on scandalous, and no few were both touching and slightly sad.

"What about the topper?" Martha asked when they'd examined all the ornaments. "It looks sort of naked without one."

"Certain prehistoric pets destroyed the old one," Ianto pointed out from where he sat sipping coffee on the couch, one leg nervously jiggling in apparent restlessness. "And nothing I came up with looked right."

"We'll figure out something," Gwen reassured, coming to join her young countryman with a groan as her bruises announced their presence again. "Where on Earth did you find the picture of Jack and his wife with baby Alice?"

"Personal Archives of the Torchwood leader at that time," Ianto explained, meeting his lover's gaze where the man still stood near the tree and receiving a slight nod of approval. "Took me a bit to break the lock code on the box, but there was some useful stuff stored inside… and not just the photo. The files I scanned into the general records for future reference and archived the hard-copies, the mementos I put in the safe to be sorted out later."

"I like the one of you three washing the SUV," Martha chuckled, heading back toward the Autopsy Lab. "It's so every day and un-Torchwood. Amazing what you can pull off of CCTV."

"Then we won't tell you what we were trying to scrub off of it," Jack commented, well able to remember the sticky, stinky, ink-black mucous from the cargo block sized worm that had attempted to eat the vehicle with them in it. "I think Ianto did an excellent job improvising on the ornaments. It makes the tree a really unique, purely Torchwood Holiday decoration."

"Absolutely," Cooper agreed enthusiastically, trying to cover a wince. "The tree's fantastic and the other decorations are great. Makes the whole Hub seem a little like home."

Ianto half-smiled, suddenly rising from the couch to collect all the empty coffee mugs and head for the kitchenette.

"You know, Gwen," Harkness began evenly, having noticed that the woman was starting to lag and obviously in pain. "I don't think anything will come up tonight that Ianto and me can't handle. Why don't you and Martha take off. You head home, have a good soak, get some rest before Rhys and the baby get back."

"You sure you two can manage?" the raven-haired woman prodded.

"Shoo," the Captain insisted, waving a hand at her. "Martha, pack it up. You and Gwen have a get off work early card. I'll call Lois and tell her to close the TIC."

"On it," his Archivist stated as he came down from the kitchenette, his mobile already out and speed dialled. "Early out, Lois. Lock up and head for home. Oh… use the 'Closed for Audit – Please Come Back Tomorrow' sign. No problem. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon and evening."

He disconnected the call and pocketed the phone, moving across to the work stations to check the latest Rift readings while the two females present in the Hub got ready to leave as well. The young Welshman answered their departing well wishes, then moved toward the corridor that led to the Vaults and deeper areas of the base, slipping on a comm unit as he went.

"I'm feeling a bit wound up for some reason," Ianto told his partner as the older man aimed for the office. "Started before lunch and isn't getting any better. I think I'll go do a little swordplay in the firing range, try to work it off. I've got comms if you need me… or you could come along."

"I might be down later," Jack sighed, glancing at his desk. "I'm feeling kind of antsy myself… sort of twitchy. But right now, I have two weeks' worth of reports and other junk piled up that I really should try to at least make a dent in."

"Fair point," the young Guardian nodded. "Let me get whatever this is out of my system, and I'll come give you a hand."

"Enjoy your session," Harkness half-smiled, catching the Bluetooth headset his companion tossed his way. "No severing anything important, yeah?"

"Not even to avoid paperwork," Ianto promised, disappearing down the corridor and through the blast door at the end.

The Captain went to settle behind his desk, occasionally rotating his still somewhat sore and unstable right ankle. He reached for the first stack of files on the ebony surface, and dutifully started skimming through the contents of the top folder. This was the part of the job he hated the most, which was probably why it tended to pile up. But the quiet times left him with no valid excuses, so… hello, paperwork.

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AN: A wee bridge chapter… and yes, I'll be posting the next as well. Consider the double posting a "treat" for Samhain… Though you might find it doesn't really help much.

Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM