Fic: 4:00 Apocalypse

[tarnera]

Title: 4:00 Apocalypse
Author: tarnera
Appearing in this work: Torchwood Team (Owen, Gwen, Ianto, Tosh, and Jack)
Spoilers/Timeline: Some time before the end of Season One.
Word Count: 560
Summary: Something horrific is happening in the Torchwood Hub.
Disclaimer/Thanks: I own nothing, save my crazy theories. I owe tw_babiez for the plot bunny.
Prompt: The End of the World as We Know It: Apocafic.
Author's Note: Written for cliche_bingo's challenge. There will hopefully be more soon(ish).


Owen yawned and stretched in the chair at his work station. It had been a long day, what with the chasing of many and varied aliens and the retconing of humans. Not to mention the resulting dead aliens he had had to dissect and classify. He rolled his stiff shoulders and decided to go for a walk around the hub, just to stretch his legs a bit.

He walked past Gwen who was sitting in a chair in the hall near the conference room and reading a book. He strolled past the conference room's open doors. He glanced inside just in passing, and froze. Completely. He could not move. What was going on in there was so unnatural he wasn't sure what to do, so he just kept watching. It's like a train wreck, he thought. No matter how you try you just can't look away.

A short while later, Ianto came up to him. Owen thought he was going to ask what was wrong, but Ianto looked past him into the room. "Oh," he said. "That's...different."

"That's horrible!" Owen protested, finally managing to wrench his eyes away to look at Ianto. "It's wrong and sick, and...and...it's the end of the world, that's what it is."

"Oh, it's not as bad...as bad as all that..." Ianto trailed off, his eyes fixed on whatever was going on inside. Despite his better judgment, Owen turned back to see what it was, and his eyes were unwillingly captured again. Blast, he should have gotten away while he could! Too late now.

Tosh joined the two men. "What's so fascinating?" she asked cheerfully.

Owen scowled, still unable to look away. "See for yourself," he grumbled.

Tosh poked him to one side so she could see properly. She started to smile slowly. "What, is that all? You'd think that it was something horrible to go by your expression, Owen. Ianto doesn't think it's that terrible, do you, Ianto?" she asked.

Ianto didn't reply, he just shook his head slowly, mouth slightly ajar, staring fixedly at the activity going on in the conference room.

Gwen, having heard this whole conversation from where she had been sitting, wandered over. Looking over Owen's shoulder to see what it was, she grinned widely. She smacked Owen's shoulder lightly. "You big baby, that's nothing to get fussed about. It is Jack, after all. What did you expect?"

"I expect him to act with some sense of pride and decency!" Owen snapped.

"Ah, well, there's your problem, then," Gwen informed him, still grinning. "I'm for pizza. Anyone else?"

"Oh, me, please!" said Tosh.

"And me," Owen said. "I'm going back to work," he added in a disgusted tone.

After one final fond smile over her shoulder, Gwen followed Tosh and Owen back to their work space, leaving Ianto behind. He moved slowly into the room and cleared his throat. Jack looked up from politely pretending he couldn't hear his team. He raised an eyebrow at Ianto.

"May I join you, sir?" Ianto asked diffidently.

Jack made an expansive, please-help-yourself gesture. Ianto smiled slightly and sat, taking a biscuit as he did so.

Ianto took a bite out of his biscuit. "You know," he said thoughtfully, pulling the tray of tea things closer to himself, "if you wanted to have a tea party, you could have invited me."