These fics are in response to a challenge on the Torchwood Australia Forums
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Challenge Six: Create a story using the following line:
Ianto does a quick head count and discounting heads that aren't there right now, comes to a startling conclusion.
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Ianto does a quick head count and discounting heads that aren't there right now, comes to a startling conclusion.
"Ianto, how are we going?" Jack shouts at Ianto as he tries to keep the door closed against the hordes pressing from outside. "Did we all make it?"
Ianto does a quick head count and discounting heads that aren't there right now, comes to a startling conclusion.
So he counts again. And again. But he keeps coming up with the same answer.
"Ianto! I can't hold this much longer!" Jack is straining against the door, and it looks like he won't be able to hold it for much longer.
"Well sir," Ianto says quietly, "either Owen's grown an extra head, or we've managed to get an extra person in here."
"What?" Jack looks around, the door creeps open a bit more, and he hurriedly turns back, leaning against the door with all his weight, "Help me with this." he grunts at Ianto, who manages to find a chair to shove under the handle, and then he and Jack can move the big table in front as well.
Jack leans against the wall trying to get his breath back, "What do you mean there's an extra person in here?" he asked Ianto.
"Well sir, there were about 15 people in the building when the hordes charged, Gwen and Tosh managed to make it out, which left you, Owen and myself to get them all to safety."
Jack looks around the crowded room, "You call this safety?" he quips, as he takes in the lack of windows and other doors.
"Well sir, at least we haven't been ripped to shreds yet." Ianto replies straight faced, then looks down at himself. "Just very wet from the sprinkler system... how did that get set off by the way?" he wonders, and then he shakes himself, and gets back to the subject at hand "Anyway, by my count there should be 17 people in here, but I just counted 18. 3 times."
Jack looks around the room again, "Where is Owen anyway?" he asks, as he peers over the top of all the heads. "I can't see him anywhere..."
Ianto turns into the room and looks, then counts again. His face becomes gradually perplexed as he revises his startling conclusion. "Um, now there are 19 people in here..." he pauses, thinks about what he just said, and then revises the comment, "make that 19 heads in here."
Jack and Ianto exchange worried looks, and then start pushing their way into the crowd looking for Owen. After a few minutes, Ianto lets out a triumphant cry, which suddenly turns into a gasp of shock. "Er, Jack, I think you'd better come see this."
Jack starts shoving his way through the group and then stops suddenly as he sees what Ianto has found.
Ianto is standing in front of Owen, who is leaning heavily against the wall, and leaning against him is a young woman from one of the offices. As Ianto moves out of the way Jack can see that they have both grown an extra head.
As he stares in stunned disbelief Ianto shudders, falls to the ground, screams, and then, like toothpaste being squeezed from the tube, a second head sprouts from his shoulders.
Jack is speechless, and as he looks Owen's original head opens his eyes and says "I think they put something in the water."
One by one the rest of the people in the room are overcome, and finally, Jack feels a strange sensation come over him, and as he falls to the ground, wonders how the hell he's going to fix this one.
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