Toshiko gathered up the ATMOS device and the sat nav that came with it and took them away to her desk and Jack sat down at the conference table next to Ianto.
"So apart from the ATMOS thing arriving through the post; anything else to report?"
Owen was fiddling with his penlight. "Nah, just got some autopsy notes that need transcribing and I need to do a service on the deep tissue scanner."
"Ok, Gwen?"
"I was just about to go through the police and EMT reports for the last 24 hours, see if anything there needs our attention." She replied on a mouthful of coffee which ended dribbling down her chin. Ianto passed her a tissue and she grinned at him with a blush.
Jack nodded, smiling at her messiness. "Need a bib there?"
Her blush deepened and Ianto kicked his shin under the table. "Ow! Ianto!"
"Yes, sir. I'll be down in the firing range on weapons maintenance." He too was sipping on his coffee.
Jack gave him a long look. "Need a hand with that?"
Ianto returned his gaze with an impassive one of his own. "Only if you get those reports signed off first."
The four of them sat in silence for a moment and Ianto was the first on his feet, gathering up the mugs.
"Oh, yes Jack. Archie called this morning and needs you to ring him back, nothing urgent apparently, which probably means Scotland is under the threat of invasion....."
"And that's not urgent?" Owen demanded.
"Not if you're Archie. A missing bottle of Glenlevit however...." Jack replied before Ianto could open his mouth to speak.
"Quite, never come between Archie and his malt."
Three pairs of eyes were suddenly on Ianto and the young man blushed, wondering why they were staring at him. Jack got to his feet and sauntered over to him whispering as he paused by his ear.
"And what do you 'come' between, Ianto?"
Ianto almost dropped the tray, and did a serious eye roll as Jack left the room, leaving Gwen and Owen to make an educated guess at what had been said. Owen was next on his feet.
"Whatever it was, you walked right into it Tea Boy!"
He and Gwen were laughing as they too left the room leaving Ianto to blush even further. He'd get Jack back later, of that he was sure.
Jack wandered up to his office and decided to ring Archie first, anything to delay the inevitable paperwork penance awaiting him. Jack dialled the Glasgow number and glanced out of his office window to catch sight of Ianto departing in the direction of the firing range. He'd been wearing the 'cute suit' today and it was very distracting, especially on such a quiet day as this. Archie's acerbic Glaswegian burr cut through his daydreaming like a cleaver.
"Harkness, bout time you rang, that laddie of yours finally got the message to ya?"
Jack held the phone away from his ear and switched over to speaker.
"Archie, cheerful as ever. What can us mere Cardiff operatives do for you fine folks North of the border?" He drawled knowing full well it would irritate the Hell out of his counterpart.
"Less of the cheek, fly boy. UNIT sent some damn silly contraption for my Land Rover.... wanted to check it wasn't as dodgy as it looks. I can only assume the lovely Miss Sato is taking one apart as we speak?"
Jack couldn't help but smile. "You tapping in to my CCTV again?"
"Nay lad, last time I did that I got an eyeful of your arse.... not a pretty sight , I can tell yeh."
The smile dropped. "Heh, I'll have you know I have a very nice arse, there's some on my staff who'll go to great lengths to get their hands on it." He automatically reached his hands down to check it out for himself and then stopped himself when he realised that Owen was looking in his direction through the window. Damn!
"Harkness, enough of the fondling already. Seriously tell me what I am supposed to do with this ATMOS thing!"
"Courier it down to us, we could do with a spare to experiment on and tell your staff not to buy them until we're sure about it, just to be safe."
"Right, will do. Would yeh young fella Ianto like his usual bottle sending with that?"
Jack's eyebrows climbed into his hairline. "Yes, I presume he will, but not on the Torchwood expenses account."
"I owe him a few favours Jack, he's an archiving wizard, even remotely. I might see if I can borrow him for a few weeks over the summer. Torchwood House is still in a mess after CW went down and Ginny is rubbish at organising anything."
"I'll talk to Ianto. He likes Scotland, god knows why, can't understand it myself." He was grinning, knowing full well the last place Ianto wanted to go was Torchwood House.
"Aye well, things to do, aliens to catch.... I'll send that thing down and tell UNIT not to send any more. Catch up later when you have Sato's report."
"Thanks Archie." They both hung up at the same time and Jack leaned back in his chair with a fond smile on his face and he then caught sight of the documents sitting in front of him, goading him. Jack resigned himself to the task and opened up the top most folder.
Toshiko was totally absorbed in her work when some hours later a cup of coffee and a Danish pastry was placed on her desk. She felt a warm gentle hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Ianto gazing down at her.
"I know you're having fun with that, but I thought you might like a bit of a break." He said with a faint smile.
"Thanks." She glanced at her watch and suddenly realised how late it was and the fact that she hadn't noticed that both Owen and Gwen had left for the day. Ianto took Gwen's seat, his own cup of coffee in hand.
"Having any luck with that?"
Tosh picked up her cup. "No, I think the UNIT boys might be right, it seems harmless enough. I want to try it out tomorrow on one of the cars in our garage and analyse what it is exactly the fumes are being converted into. It's a very sophisticated device, but it doesn't actually contain non contemporary technology so far as I can tell."
"Looks more flashy than it is?"
"Exactly. I mean, if does what it's supposed to who are we to complain about what it looks like?" She nibbled at her snack watching her young colleague closely. "You really don't trust it do you?"
Ianto shrugged. "I think it's my aversion to all things silver since... well you know. I've been looking into that school of Rattigan's and the more I find out the more I think we need to investigate."
"I'd love to get into that place, apparently there's loads of innovative tech there."
Ianto smiled. "I'll see what I can do." He got up from his seat. "Right, for once I am going home, his lordship is still paper pushing." He gestured in the direction of Jack's office. "Don't stay up too late, good night Tosh."
"Night Ianto."