AN: Alright, random piece of info. A while back, there was a Torchwood fanvid, called So Damn Hot, about Captain Jack. Fabulous prize to anyone who can find that for me (and by fabulous prize, I actually mean fairly crappy prize. A fic, maybe, or character named after you? Whatever.) Also, I own nothing, yada yada, BBC is God, etc.
Less than an hour ago, he'd had a ravening Weevil so close to his face that he could smell it's breath before he managed to put it down with the judicious application of a taser and the spray Jack had handed him.
Thirty minutes ago, he'd helped Owen drag them down to the cells, noting with some satisfaction that he seemed to intimidate his Weevil a lot more easily than the medic. It possibly had something to do with the hundred and fifty thousand volts he had just sent through the creatures spine.
Now he was surrounded by two members of the Torchwood team, whose insatiable appetite for gossip was somehow more terrifying than the idea that an alien life form would try to eat his face.
"So, what do you know about Jack?" Owen was the one to ask, leaning over his carton of Chinese and pointing chopsticks at Ianto.
He frowned. "I only met him yesterday. Shouldn't that be my question?"
"You two just seemed…" Tosh appeared to be searching for a way to put it delicately. "Close. We thought you might know something interesting about him."
Ianto paused. "Interesting, in what sense?"
"It's Jack. He doesn't do anything dull. If you know something, it's bound to be interesting." Owen pointed out.
"I don't know much." Ianto shrugged, preferring to leave the contents of Jack's files at Torchwood One private. "I'm sure you and Gwen know more. Where is she, anyway?"
From the identically suspicious looks shot in his direction, Ianto surmised that they weren't even mildly fooled. Thankfully, Tosh humoured him, and answered, "Making coffee."
Her answer was proven right as the Welsh woman teetered down the stairs, carefully balancing five cups on what looked like an old James Bond paperback.
"Here we are. Ianto, love, I wasn't sure how you liked yours. Milk and two sugars okay?"
Ianto, who normally took his coffee pure black with no sugar, nodded, and took a sip from the purple cup he was handed.
"You alright?" Owen looked concerned, which seemed to be a rarity for him.
Ianto's face turned red, but he nodded, and tried not to gag. Once he'd finally forced down the mouthful, he smiled weakly. "Delicious. A little hot for now, though." He placed the cup on a desk with the care of a bomb squad specialist, and leaned away from it slightly, trying to avoid even getting the scent anywhere near him.
He glanced up, searching for any distraction that might allow his cup to join the multitudes that appeared to be nesting around the hub. Jack was standing in his office, arms crossed and a pensive expression on his face. His gaze seemed to settle on each team member in turn, before landing on Ianto's upturned face. Despite the distance that separated them, Ianto could practically feel Jack's warm lips on his neck, his hands on Ianto's face.
His eyes startled back to Tosh as she stood up, apparently in response to a quiet beeping emerging from one of her consoles. To be honest, he had been hearing so many varied noises from the machines all day that they had started to become background noise, like the gentle sound of water falling in the tower, Myfanwy's crowing for treats, and the hum of computers and alien gadgets.
"That's odd."
Everyone whipped around to stare at Tosh - it took a lot for anything to be considered odd in a job which made most movies look tame.
She smiled over at them, "It's probably nothing. Just a weird reading of energy. I'll go tell Jack, see if he knows what's going on."
Ianto, made curious by the strange reaction of a normally unshakable Tosh, wandered over to her computer. He didn't have the experience of the woman, but he could immediately see what had caught her attention.
"Bloody hell…" Came the mild response of Owen, who was leaning over Ianto's shoulder.
Gwen raised her eyebrows and tilted her head sideways. "I'm pretty sure it's never done that before. Does anyone know what that is?"
"Not a clue. How about you, Teaboy?"
Ianto shook his head. The screen in front of them showed energy readings for Cardiff, probably a program created by Tosh to help with her ideas of rift prediction. The readings for the last year had been fairly steady - slight variations as people turned on and off electrical equipment, lightning struck, or power went out in certain parts, but nothing like this.
"It looks," Owen continued, wetting his lips nervously, "like a heart monitor for Cardiff. If Cardiff just flat-lined, that is."
That was the perfect analogy, Ianto had to agree, looking at the previous steady blips, and now, nothing. The graph had taken an immediate vertical drop, down almost to zero, and Ianto had a sudden, horrible idea.
"Gwen, pull out your mobile."
Confused but cooperative, the other woman did as she was told, groaning as she saw a black screen. "I just charged that last night. What's going on?"
"I don't know." The authoritative voice of Captain Jack came as he marched down the stairs, Tosh trailing behind like a tug boat behind a barge. "But I intend to find out."
"We better do it soon." Tosh looked around the hub, face serious. "Because nothing purely earth powered is working, and it's not just Cardiff." She waved her hand held monitor around. "I widened the search parameters, and the result is the same everywhere."
"Sounds like a good time to be Amish, then." Owen remarked dryly.
"Doesn't sound like a good time to be anyone on earth." Jack's mouth was set firmly as he stared his team down. "The human race is virtually defenceless, and I get the feeling someone is planning on taking advantage of the fact."
"Oh my God," Gwen gasped, "we'll be like sheep to the slaughter."
Jack nodded grimly. "Exactly."