Torchwood: Divergence
Book Four: Hatchweliad
Chapter 23

The two men disappeared through the big cog-wheel door, just as Turlough came out of the corridor that led to the lower levels. The redhead briefly took over the main bathroom to wash up, then came to join all the ladies.

"What happened to your arm?" he queried the former constable as he flopped down next to her on the cushions.

Cooper gave a quick rundown of the incident with the ladder when the lights went out earlier, and her timely rescue by their resident Scieron Guardian.

"It's easy to forget there's more to Ianto being a Changeling than just coming back from death and speed healing," she stated thoughtfully when the story was done. "We so rarely see his wings, and there's hardly ever been a reason for him to do things that show how much faster and stronger he is than normal people now. It's spooky in a way… proves he's not the boy I originally met when I first joined Torchwood anymore. But if he wasn't part Shadow now, I'd be dead or crippled and not necessarily from falling in the Archives."

The team was silent for a moment, then Martha spoke up.

"He's definitely changed in a lot of ways," she stated solemnly, only to smile and shake her head. "And yet he's still the same old Ianto… killer coffee, twisted humour, epic calm and all. More stoic than ever though. Nothing but deep breaths and barely audible swearing when I stapled up his hand and wrapped his knee earlier."

"How did he cut his hand?" Gwen prodded with a frown. "I saw blood on both sleeves after the seizure in the corridor, but I wasn't sure what it was from."

"Caught the corner of the ladder with the broken cap when he shoved it away, so it didn't hit either of you or Jack's ladder," the team medic explained. "Gashed open his palm pretty badly. Took twelve staples to close it up, and I watched the damaged tendons and ligaments regrowing like threads coiling into a rope while I was closing the main wound. Amazing."

"So, because I had to cut the lights, you got a major bruising and needed a change of knickers," Turlough sighed unhappily, squarely facing the one-time PC beside him. "Jack blew a fuse and yelled at Ianto for doing what he'd told him to from the time we got back, and Ianto ripped open a hand and got worked up enough to bring on a seizure. I'm in so much hot water for this."

"He crunched up one wing and twisted his bad knee too" Lois put in helpfully, which made the nearby Time expert groan and hang his head.

"I'm rubbish," he growled despondently. "And so were those sodding server blades from Torchwood Two. I had to modify and update each one individually to make them compatible with the system here, and some of them still didn't' play nice when I installed them, even with Main Frame helping with the integration."

"They can't crash the system, can they?" Cooper asked worriedly.

"Thankfully, no," Turlough reassured soberly. "Now that they're all in, the servers here are threading their own matrix crystals into them, and making them a safe, secure part of the whole. Best thing about semi-organic circuitry. And the only good point of my adventures in the Pit apparently."

"You did a fantastic job," Gwen insisted. "None of us could've managed it, and no permanent harm was done to anyone. Besides, it highlighted the very real need for the whole team to take a major time-out, so it was actually brilliant."

"Absolutely," Ianto put in from the descending hidden lift, a good-sized box held in both arms. "Tosh couldn't've done better, and she considered that system her 'baby'… sometimes literally, I think."

"Where's Jack?" Martha queried before anyone else could.

"Said my limp was making his leg hurt," the young Welshman replied with a slight smile as he carefully stepped down off the lift's paver stone. "Dropped me off to come in the easy way, then went to park the SUV. He should be down shortly, so if you'll all raid the fridge for drinks and grab proper utensils, we can hit the Boardroom."

The rest of the team dutifully made for the kitchenette, as Ianto limped across the Hub and down the corridor to their normal meal and meeting spot. He sat the heavy-gauge cardboard box on the table, went about pulling the plastic meal containers from it and dispersing them to the usual seats everyone used. Then he placed the empty carrier out of the way by the door, put a stack of paper napkins at each end of the table, fielded the vacant Archive bin from under the viewing screen and settled into his preferred chair. The young Changeling had just eased his aching right leg up onto the metal case, when the team filed in, followed by their leader.

"Real food, kids," Harkness grinned, taking his seat on the end facing the door and winking at his partner. "Pass some water this way, relax, and enjoy."

The group got comfortable and opened their meals, all but Turlough finding steaming steak and kidney pie, with chips and green peas on the side. The team's Time expert had warm kippers, accompanied by scotch eggs, toast, and an incongruous serving of roasted asparagus.

"You've said you're not keen on steak and kidney anything," Ianto stated when the redhead gave him a questioning look. "So, I figured the breakfast fare was safe, and had them add a vegetable for you. Will it do?"

"Makes me think you've been peeking into my fridge at home, or getting secret messages from Skinnytail," Turlough nodded with a crooked smile. "Thanks. And I'm sorry I caused such a mess for all of you in the Archives earlier. I honestly didn't mean for anyone to get hurt."

"I'll suck up the blame for that one," Jack stated evenly. "I delayed Ianto when you called for him, and I ignored his advice to open up a new chamber instead of trying to move more cases without his help. No-one took any lasting damage, and you got the job done, so I think we actually came out on the plus side."

"And if the squeals of glee were any indication," his partner put in pleasantly. "It afforded Martha a great deal of medical entertainment watching things knit up while she was treating my hand."

"I did not squeal," the young doctor protested, though she couldn't keep a huge smile off her face.

"Squealing seemed a kinder descriptive than manic giggling or insane cackling," Ianto countered with a slight shrug, his blue-grey eyes sparkling. "Just trying not to frighten the team."

"Shut it," Martha laughed, pointing a warning finger at the Changeling. "Eat your pie and behave."

"Yes, ma'am," Ianto nodded docilely, making the rest of the gathering chuckle as well.

The team ate their meal in relative silence after that, proving that everyone was exhausted and too focused on chewing for banter. As the food disappeared however, they perked up a bit.

"Okay," Lois piped up unexpectedly. "My question is, if Ianto will be completely rearranging the Archives again to keep the stuff from T2 stored with similar types and date ordered items we've already got… why don't we just open up a bunch of empty chambers, put all the new stuff in the farthest ones, leave a couple empty between and let him start the reorganization instead of doing all this shift about? It seems like double work for him and us to do it the way we are. Whose idea was it to go that route?"

Ianto gave her a charming little smile, then raised his eyebrows at Jack, who quickly took a large bite of his pie to avoid answering the question. Which pretty much explained everything.

"You already suggested exactly what Lois just did, yeah?" Gwen asked the young Guardian across the table from her.

"Yep," Ianto replied simply, reaching for his water with his bandaged hand. "Before we left Scotland."

"And Jack opted for the hard way because?" Turlough enquired evenly, obviously trying not to smile as their leader squirmed under the group's curious scrutiny.

"I thought," Harkness began carefully, after stalling further by taking a long drink of water. "It would be a good team building exercise."

"Rubbish!" Cooper cried with a laugh. "Come on, admit it. You were too tired to listen to a word Ianto said in Glasgow, or just bloody forgot by the time we got back to base."

"I may have been having a little trouble focusing right about then," the Captain confessed, his expression neutral but his eyes showing he could appreciate the amusement the others were deriving from his 'mistake'.

"Which is fairly unprecedented, considering all of us were fully clothed at the time," his partner commented with a deadpan look. "So, did you hear anything I said on the subject?"

"Sort of," Jack shrugged, a smile fighting to win free. "But when I try to remember the conversation, it kind of sounds like the teacher talking in a Charlie Brown cartoon… 'Wah wah, wah wah wah wah wah'."

The team laughed long and hard over that, obviously having needed the stress relief. They all returned to their meals as things settled down once more, appreciating the food and the promise of some rest and relaxation at home afterward.

"I have a question too," Martha said as they neared the end of the lunch break. "Why hasn't the Rift been surging this whole time? I mean, there hasn't been a single peep out of it the entire span I've been doing the autopsy on the not-yet-dead Sergeant Abernathy. And there was nothing in the Logs when we got back from Glasgow. Is it just me, or does that seem weird to anyone else?"

"Ianto had the foresight to take care of that before we left for Scotland," Harkness explained. "He asked one of the Scieron to hang around in the ether on this plane, to block the Rift till we have time to deal with incursions. So, we might have a bit of a backlog to take care of later, but won't have to worry about alerts till we're done with the Archive rework. Which needs a new plan of attack tomorrow."

"Well done, Ianto!" Turlough, Gwen and Lois all cheered at the same time, managing to make the young Welshman blush.

"Won't the Scieron get bored just flitting about out of sight?" Martha asked with a raised brow.

Crimson light briefly flickered in the nearby Changeling's eyes, and he shook his head.

"Mother Shadow says she's always enjoyed close observation of the worlds here," Ianto relayed with a slight smile. "And that the intense emotional resonances the human race gives off are keeping her incredibly well fed."

"Fantastic," Cooper grinned, finishing her meal with a sigh.

"Okay, kids," the Captain called cheerfully. "Go ahead and scoot once you're done eating. Ianto and I will do the clean up, then we're shutting down the Hub for a bit. We'll sort out a new plan for dealing with the Archives, and see you all at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Go home, relax, enjoy the rest of the day."

The team all finished their meals, then straggled out of the Boardroom to collect their personal gear. Ianto produced a bin liner from one of the cupboards hidden in the walls and began clearing the table, as Jack fielded all the utensils and unopened bottles of water. They made it out to the kitchenette just as everyone else was preparing to leave, so they farewelled their friends before doing a quick wash up of the knives and forks.
When everything was properly stored, the pair put the Hub into sleep mode and headed for the office. Time for some much-needed rest.

"How's the knee?" Harkness prodded as they entered their room and closed the door, worried by the younger man's still heavy limp.

"Really sore," his Archivist admitted as he sat in the chair to remove his boots. "Nothing a nice shower, long nap, and quiet night won't cure though."

The Captain frowned slightly but accepted the reassurance, settling to the end of the bed to take off his own footwear. Minus belts, boots, and socks, they both moved into the en suite and began stripping off their clothes. The older immortal reached in to start the shower as his lover sorted their garments into the correct hampers, his eyes widening when he turned to report that the water was hot.

"Holy crap," Jack blurted, reaching over to lightly touch the young Welshman's back hear his left shoulder blade. "You've got a bruise the size of a football, and it's the nastiest shades of blue, black, and purple I've ever seen. What happened?"

"That would be the result of seriously bashing my left wing when I caught Gwen earlier," Ianto offered with a slight wince. "Should be gone in another hour or two. Let me get the gauze off my hand and we can shower, yeah?"

"Okay," the American agreed, though it was obvious he was having a major flare of guilt over the twenty-six-year-old's current injuries. "Quick scrub, pass with the toothbrush, then we hit the bed for a round of 'kiss it better' and some real sleep."

"Works for me," his lover half-smiled, limping into the cubicle and reaching for the body wash as the older immortal joined him under the steamy spray. "I'll wash your back; you can wash mine… maybe trade a few other spots needing attention…"

Harkness grinned and willingly complied with the suggestion, which made the shared shower a nice combination of cleansing, relaxing, and very entertaining. They were both feeling much better by the time they dried off, brushed their teeth, and crawled into bed.

"Let's get your hand wrapped so we don't end up with staples between the sheets," the Captain urged, pulling a sterile package of rolled gauze, some surgical tape, and a small pair of scissors from the night table drawer, having started stocking a few medical supplies there just in case. "Not the kind of poke I like to wake up to."

Ianto chuckled as his partner bandaged his wounded hand for him, only to end up laughing and squirming when the older man stowed the unused supplies and all but pounced on him. An intense but careful injury to injury kiss and caress fest got underway, a couple of brief sidetracks indicating they were both feeling a lot better than before lunch. The game ended with a very powerful snog, after which they shifted into their preferred back to chest position and relaxed.

And that proved they truly did need a break, because the two men were asleep in seconds, with nothing short of an explosion like the one that had demolished Torchwood Two likely to wake them any time soon.

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AN: A good meal, hot shower, and long nap can do wonders.

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