The next morning, Ianto switched on his workstation and drank his first cup of coffee. He closed his eyes and savoured the aroma of the Jamaican blend he had bought a couple of days ago.
He loved his coffee machine.
Yvonne had surprised him with it shortly after his promotion when he had complained about the one in the break room down the hall. In his opinion, it produced the worst tar. A trip to the in-house restaurant for a decent cup of coffee took far too long, given their tight schedule every day.
He quickly checked Yvonne's agenda for this morning. As he opened the drawer to get a pen to make notes, he noticed the folder on top.
The transfer request!
Ianto frowned. How could he have forgotten? He had planned to talk to Yvonne about it yesterday!
He pulled out the cardboard sleeve and placed it on the desk in front of him. As he ran his fingers over the cover, he felt anxiety rise in his stomach. He'd been thinking about this for the past few weeks, wrestling with his conscience, trying to figure out what he wanted for his future.
Ianto loved working for Torchwood; it all felt like one big adventure. But ever since his mother called to tell him that his father had died, his conscience had been gnawing at him. Her tearful pleas for him to return home weighed heavily on his mind.
He had been bouncing back and forth between London and Cardiff since severing ties with his family. His decision to turn his back on them had been heavily influenced by his father at the time. He just couldn't stand it at home any longer. His mother and sister were not to blame. Now that everything had changed, could he be so selfish and ignore their pleas? Didn't he have an obligation to return home? No matter what he had built up here?
Deep down, he knew he couldn't go back to his old life in Wales. It wasn't the life he wanted. So, when he came up with the idea of applying for a transfer to Torchwood Three, it seemed like the ideal solution. He had spent days researching their outpost in Wales.
Many rumours circulated Canary Wharf about their leader, Captain Jack Harkness. From tales of him being an arrogant Casanova who flirted with everything that moved, to ghost stories of him being a demonic entity who had haunted the streets of Cardiff for over a century. Some people's imaginations knew no boundaries.
While working for Yvonne, he had only had to deal with the status reports that came in from Cardiff. They were usually chaotic and incomplete.
Ianto could tell from the loud phone calls he overheard from Yvonne Hartman's office that she and the captain were not getting on. From what he could hear, they seemed to disagree about almost everything, especially how the Institute should be run.
Torchwood Three sounded like a branch gone rogue, and he was beginning to like the idea of going there and cleaning up their house. It felt like something he was meant to do.
Surely, Yvonne could see the reasoning behind his plan.
When she opened the door to his office and peeked in, he stood up quickly.
"Good morning, Yvonne!"
No matter how early he arrived, Yvonne was always there first. Today was no different.
"Good morning to you too, Ianto!" she said cheerfully, clutching the laptop bag she had slung over her shoulder.
"Do you have a moment?" he began hesitantly. "I need to talk to you about something..."
"No, Ianto. Not right now. I'm going away for a few days. Urgent meeting in Glasgow." She smiled at him.
"Glasgow? There's nothing on your calendar! Do you need me to come...?"
"No, no. You stay here. The meeting with Archie will be boring. I've got another job for you. Check your emails! Bye, Ianto!"
And with that, she was gone.
A melodic ping marked the arrival of a new email. Looking at the screen, Ianto saw a new message from Yvonne with the subject line 'Office Party - Saturday'.
He sat down with a heavy sigh. It sounded like a threat.
Ianto stood outside the closed doors to one of the many meeting rooms on Level 20 and stared down at his PDA, as he had done at least a hundred times since receiving Yvonne's email with instructions on what she expected: The organisation of a party for Saturday.
Today was Thursday. Planning such a party for the whole of Torchwood One was nothing short of ambiguous.
She had never asked him to head up a party committee before.
What had got into her? She was well aware that this was not his cup of tea, and as her PA, he had far more pressing tasks he should take care of.
He sighed. Yvonne wasn't here, so there was nothing to be done. He straightened his tie, took a deep breath and opened the door.
Guleraana and Glenda were already waiting inside. Before he could close the door, Pippa burst in, hot on his heels. As she mumbled a half-hearted apology, Ianto sat down and shrugged.
"We haven't started yet," he told her.
"Because we obviously have endless time," Guleraana complained. "Planning a party in less than 36 hours - is Yvonne trying to set a new record?"
She looked at her watch.
"I hope this doesn't take too long. I can't leave the reception in Moira's hands any longer than necessary. I honestly wonder who came up with the idea of appointing her to cover for me when I'm busy," she lamented.
As the receptionist at Torchwood One, her realm was the ground floor, which she ruled undisputed. She rarely had a reason to be on the upper floors. In Ianto's opinion, she should appreciate it much more.
He'd been working for Torchwood for a few months now, but the stunning view still amazed him every day. To be up here in the tallest building in the country felt like such a privilege that he wondered if he'd ever get used to it.
With a pang, he remembered the transfer application in his desk drawer. Probably, the question would soon become obsolete.
"What am I even doing here?" Pippa complained once she'd settled in. "I didn't volunteer for this committee. Don't get me wrong, I love planning parties, but it's the end of the month. Yvonne should know how busy HR is these days."
"According to Yvonne's email, I think this is mandatory. Just like the party," Ianto explained, his expression uneasy.
Pippa was right: there was usually a notice on the public bulletin board, and volunteers could add their names to a list in the hope of being considered. For some reason, Yvonne felt compelled to do things differently this time.
"Any excuse to do something other than work right now is a good one," Glenda said in her high-pitched voice. "Admin is inventorying the archives, and I'm grateful I'm not down there right now. Rummaging through boxes is incredibly bad for your nails."
Ianto winced. Her high voice was something he'd been trying to get used to since he'd joined the Institute. He'd worked with her for the first few weeks before Yvonne asked him to be her PA.
Or perhaps it was the simple fact that she bore his mother's name yet was nothing like her that bothered him. A constant reminder of the caring woman he hadn't seen in ages.
"Can we start now?" Guleraana asked, looking at her watch, her annoyance growing. "I don't want to leave reception understaffed for too long."
"I'm sure Moira will manage, G," Ianto said, shortening her name like all of them did. Her desk wasn't particularly busy between shifts. She just liked to chat with the sexy delivery boys who came in from time to time. "Adeola and..." he checked his notes, "Lisa are still missing. We should wait."
His suggestion was met with groans around the table, except for Glenda, who had taken out a small file to polish her fingernails.
"Alien Acquisitions and being late... why am I not surprised?" Pippa joked with an eye-roll, ignoring the fact that she was rarely on time for meetings herself.
Before anyone could reply, the door was flung open, and two women burst in. Adeola's arms were full of folders, which she placed on the table before sitting down.
"Hey everyone, sorry we're late!"
Ianto barely noticed her as he concentrated on the other arrival. He was familiar with everyone else in the room except Lisa Hallett. He wondered if they had ever met in the corridors. Probably not. He was sure he would have remembered.
"This is Lisa," Adeola introduced. "She works for us as a technician in Acquisition."
She was welcomed with a wave of greetings around the table. Ianto couldn't stop staring at her since she entered the room. Lisa looked stunning. She was tall and slim, with her hair cut short. She was wearing a green business suit that complemented her dark skin perfectly. Ianto felt the whole room was lit up by her beautiful eyes and the bright smile on her full lips.
"...start now? Ianto?" Guleraana's voice finally broke through his preoccupied mind.
"What? Oh. Yes," Ianto cleared his throat. His eyes lingered on Lisa for a moment. Then he lowered his gaze and began scrolling through the notes on his PDA.
"Welcome everyone, and thanks for making yourselves available on such short notice."
He ignored the murmurs around the table. When their boss requested attendance, everyone knew they had to be there.
"Yvonne wants this party to happen on Saturday, so we don't have much time. But I'm confident we can pull it off if we work together."
There was further murmuring around the table, but this time in agreement. Working for Torchwood meant teamwork, and Torchwood was ingrained in their DNA, after all.
With that settled, they stared at each other until all eyes turned to Ianto.
He frowned. "Why are you looking at me?"
"You're the head of organisations," Pippa enlightened him. "You tell us what to do."
Ianto stared at her.
"Right."
He'd only been to two or three office parties since he started working for Torchwood, and he'd never been in the unfortunate position of having to organise one, here or anywhere else.
The only reference he could think of was hanging out with his friends after school, which hadn't needed planning at all. They would throw in whatever money they had, with the oldest buying a few beer bottles.
Unfortunately, a few bottles of beer would not be enough in this case.
"Maybe... we start with a list of what needs to be done?"
"I'll do the whiteboard," Pippa offered to make herself useful and reached for a marker pen.
She wiped the scribbles from the previous meeting off the board and looked eagerly at the others.
"Suggestions?" she asked.
Despite a slow start, the list grew until it included theme, food, music, party games and invitations.
"Do we really need games?" Ianto asked after the ideas had run dry. He hated them with all his heart.
"Of course, we need party games," Guleraana scolded him. "What else are we supposed to talk about on Monday if not funny stories about embarrassing party games?"
Ianto rolled his eyes as everyone laughed and agreed with Guleraana.
"Party games it is then," he said simply and gave up.
It didn't take long to distribute the responsibilities using the list on the whiteboard. Catering and music would be Guleraana's responsibility. She announced that she knew a hot DJ and was keen to hire him. When Ianto reminded her that he would have to be retconned afterwards, she just shrugged.
Pippa offered to organise supplies for some fun games and recruited a reluctant Glenda to help.
"You can't just sit around and do your nails, Glenda," Pippa rebuked her. "Buying a bunch of party hats and a piñata horse isn't that complicated."
"Can you send out the invitations, G?" Ianto asked after rereading Yvonne's email. "Attendance from key departments is mandatory. Oh, and do it as soon as possible, if we wait until tomorrow, people will complain that it was too short notice."
"It's already too short notice," Guleraana reminded him but nodded. "I'll get on it as soon as I'm back at my post."
"Adi, anything you want to take over or contribute?" Ianto asked Adeola, looking at her and her friend Lisa, who had been very quiet the whole time.
"I think I'll have to pass," she replied. "Yvonne may not have mentioned the reason for the party in her email, but I know what she has in mind."
Now, all eyes were on her.
"As you may know, I am working on our free energy project, and we have recently noticed a shift in the signals coming from the anomaly above the tower. We believe it is directly related to the sphere that appeared on the top floor some time ago.
Yvonne has sent out a memo stating her desire to shift Torchwood's focus and make our project a priority. She wants to use the party to inform everybody of our latest discoveries," Adeola said with pride in her voice.
Torchwood had always been concerned about the radar black spot over London. It was the reason the Tower had been built in the first place, but research had remained inconclusive for years. To finally make progress was reassuring.
"She's asked me to prepare a presentation for the party, so I don't think I'll have time for anything else," she said, patting the stack of folders she'd brought along.
"Fair enough," Ianto said, wondering why Yvonne hadn't told him about it. "We're down to the party theme anyway. Since none of you liked my idea for a sci-fi theme, I'm asking again: any suggestions?"
His question was met with silence. Discussing the theme had been first on their agenda, but it had ended in a heated discussion about not turning this into a children's birthday party, which some of them associated with a sci-fi theme.
"I still think astrology would be a brilliant idea," Pippa said, repeating her earlier suggestion.
Guleraana groaned. "That's not a theme. You can include it in your party games if you like. But a theme? Absolutely not."
At least everyone agreed on that. Well, except for Pippa.
"It's a party game then," she conceded with a bitter tone. "But you'll see - people will love it when I tell them their future."
"Costume party?" Glenda suggeseted eagerly. "That's always fun."
"We don't have enough time to organise costumes for everyone," Guleraana told her. There were several places in London where you could rent costumes for parties, but with such short notice and so close to the weekend, they would get nothing but rubbish. "Maybe we could have a beach party. Hawaiian shirts are easier to get hold of."
Before anyone could like the idea, Ianto intervened. "No sand beaches inside the building. Come on, guys, we need something practical. Something we can set up quickly; we don't have much time before Saturday."
"I like the idea with the sci-fi theme," said a cautious voice, and all eyes were drawn to Lisa. She hadn't talked much like Adeola, clearly feeling out of place, not knowing anyone. "We could ask Tommy to search the storage rooms for discarded alien tech. It wouldn't even cost us anything, compared to an Hawaiian theme," she said.
Guleraana didn't seem convinced, but at least she didn't discard the idea again. "If we can't come up with something else, how about a vote? Who doesn't like the sci-fi theme?"
She, Pippa and Glenda put their hands up.
"And who does like it?"
Now it was time for Ianto, Adeola and Lisa to raise their hands.
"Great. Now we have a draw," Ianto groaned. "Come on, guys, it's past lunchtime! If nobody's got a better idea, we'll do this. I'll talk to Tommy and organise everything. Please?"
"I could help," Lisa offered.
"Fine," Guleraana finally relented. "I have to get back to reception. Let's have a children's party if you like. The party is your responsibility, so you'll have to deal with Yvonne if she doesn't like it."
"Absolutely not a problem," Ianto shot back firmly.
And with that, the meeting was adjourned.
A short time later, Ianto and Lisa followed Tommy Pierce around Acquisitions as he inspected a newly arrived starship, deciding which parts were especially interesting for Torchwood and which would be stored for future study when he had more time.
He cursed and muttered under his breath, irritated by the interruption.
"Tommy, please! Let's have a look at storage. We just need a few pieces for decoration. We promise to bring everything back on Monday!" Ianto tried to plead with him.
The man could be so stubborn. In his eyes, every piece in here belonged to him personally.
Tommy continued to grumble. He kept ranting and raving about how Yvonne had lost her mind or why she allowed the kids to use Alien Acquisitions as a playground. But after a while of begging, he finally relented and allowed them to use whatever they saw fit from the storeroom.
"Just don't you bloody kids dare break anything!" he yelled after them as they hurried away.