fandomweekly | [#218] One Sunny Morning (Torchwood)

Theme Prompt: #218 – Caught In The Rain
Title: One Sunny Morning
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: A trip into the Brecon Beacons on a glorious spring day turns out to be a lot less enjoyable than Ianto and Jack expected.

The weather had been glorious over the last few days, the kind of idealised spring conditions everyone dreamed about but almost never got to experience, because… well, that was Britain. Whatever the season, you could practically guarantee that it would be wet, and probably cold. Good weather tended to take people by surprise.

Thanks to the blue skies and mild temperatures, for the first time in memory, the thought of having to trek out to the Beacons to deal with an emergency landing didn’t fill Ianto with dread, even though it was so early that the sun had barely risen. A brisk hike on a bright, sunny morning sounded like the perfect way to start the day, especially since it would just be him and Jack. Someone would have to stay behind and man the Hub, and since the rest of the team weren’t in yet, they’d been nominated for the task. Ianto almost wished he could see their faces when they found out. Maybe he’d check the Hub’s CCTV later. In the meantime, the trip out to the Beacons was delightful. They drove with the windows rolled down so they could fill their lungs with the fresh, spring air.

Jack was all smiles. “Days like this, it feels good to be alive!”

Ianto didn’t bother replying; he’d been thinking exactly the same thing, and he was perfectly content to put his brain on standby and simply bask in the warmth while Jack took care of the driving.

Things didn’t start to go downhill until after they’d parked the car as close as possible to where the distress signal was originating from, and they’d set out on foot. Jack had decided they should cut through a field of cows, which was fair enough; Ianto couldn’t see any reason why not, as long as they closed the gate behind them.

Unfortunately, they both failed to notice that one of the cows was a bull, and he didn’t take kindly to their intrusion. By the time they’d scrambled through the fence on the far side of the field, they were both out of breath, and Ianto was reasonably certain he’d just broken his own personal record for the two-hundred metre sprint.

“Well, that was bracing.” He eyed the bull, which was glaring at them over the fence. “But when we come back, I think we should consider taking the long way around.”

“Might be wise,” Jack agreed. “We got lucky this time, we had a head start on him, but I’m not eager for a re-match.” He slapped Ianto on the back “No point standing here all morning. Onward and upward!”

That was more than merely a figure of speech. Hefting their backpacks onto their shoulders, they set off up the steep slope, wending their way ever deeper into the Beacons, putting the bull out of their minds and focusing on the task ahead.

It took them almost two hours of steady hiking to reach the high valley where the damaged ship had landed, and a further two-and-a-half hours to help the quartet of Gilvanians to repair the damage to their directional jets. They’d become clogged when the Rift had spat their small craft out somewhere above Radyr, in the midst of a flock of feral pigeons.

While Ianto wasn’t especially upset about the demise of the pigeons, which were something of a nuisance in and around Cardiff, cleaning their remains out of the ship’s air intakes was a messy and tedious business, and he made a mental note to include heavy-duty rubber gloves as standard equipment in every field kit. He and Jack had to use a whole packet of wet wipes just cleaning the worst of the muck off their hands.

“I look like I’ve been working in a slaughterhouse,” Ianto muttered to himself, picking shredded feathers off his jeans as Jack exchanged a few final words with the grateful Gilvanian captain. He straightened up to watch as the small spacecraft lifted into the air, rising rapidly into a blue sky now marred with clouds until the main drive kicked in. It was out of sight before he could blink.

“Right, now the fun’s over we should probably head back.” Jack wiped his hands on the short grass, then hoisted his backpack onto one shoulder.

Ianto glanced around the shallow valley, littered with pigeon remains, and decided in this case cleanup was unnecessary; scavengers would deal with the carnage far better than he could. Picking up his own backpack, he followed Jack back up onto the ridge, feeling the wind beginning to tug at his clothes. He frowned up at the gathering clouds; being out in the middle of nowhere suddenly seemed a lot less appealing, and he hurried to catch up with his lover, who was striding along oblivious to the deteriorating weather.

They’d gone no more than half a mile before the first heavy raindrops started to fall, and Ianto hunched his shoulders, wishing he hadn’t left the rain gear in the car in order to make more room in their packs for tools and equipment.

“Great,” he grumbled to Jack. “Not only are we adorned with bits of pigeon, now it looks like we’re going to get drenched.” Before he’d finished speaking, a gust of wind drove a squall of rain straight into their faces. Ianto flinched, shuddered, but continued doggedly on.

Jack glanced at him in surprise. “Didn’t you bring an umbrella? I thought you always had one in your bag of tricks.”

Ianto graced his lover with his best withering look. “What good would an umbrella do in this wind?”

“Waterproofs then.”

“They’re in the car, because you insisted on bringing that alien welder thing. The one that weighs five pounds and that we didn’t use.”

“Oh.”

At that moment, the heavens opened, rain hammering down on them, and no shelter in sight. Ianto groaned. “Today just keeps getting worse.”

Jack shrugged. “Look on the bright side. At least its washing away the pigeon bits.”

The End