Torchwood -- Everyone is Singing
Jan. 27th, 2009 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gracie_musicaTitle: Everyone is Singing
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redismycolour Challenge: Day Twenty-One
Date Written: 1/27/09
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 583
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Martha
Spoilers: DW 03, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This one stumped me for a while. I ended up reading a few of what everyone else said, so more Martha Jones! Title from the Dixie Chicks song "Top of the World".
Listen. The minstrels sing,
In the departed villages. The nightingale,
Dust in the buried wood, flies on the grains of her wings
And spells on the winds of the dead his winter's tale.
Excerpt from "A Winter's Tale".
by Dylan Thomas
"He saved my life, y'know."
Jack stops mid-stride, almost overbalancing. "What?"
"He saved my life," Martha repeats, her voice tinny over the phone. "Your Ianto."
He'd talked to Martha about his team after everything was done, while they were decompressing somewhere quiet and safe and beautiful and alive. She'd said she was going home to her parents, and asked if Jack was going to stay with the Doctor. He'd been intending to lie to her, to tell her that the Doctor would be in safe hands -- he shouldn't be alone right now, they both knew it -- but then everything had just spilled out. Gwen's fiery spirit and Toshiko's quiet brilliance, Owen's snark and incredible competence. The one he'd talked about at length, though, was Ianto; how he'd been at Canary Wharf with her cousin and he'd almost brought the world to ruin for the woman he loved. How much he'd changed and grown into a person, a real person with his own place in the world. She teased him at length about falling in love ("look at you, being all human!") and had been ecstatic when she learned he was preparing to go on a date with the famous Mr. Jones.
"And you're just remembering this now?"
"Lots of things blur together from that time," she admitted. "I found a picture of him. Y'know, in the database."
Martha had been recruited into UNIT and Jack still didn't know how he felt about it. He'd wanted her in Torchwood, where he could keep an eye on her because he owed her, they all did, and if anything happened to her he'd never forgive himself.
"I started off in the UK, on the journey around the world. Everything was so chaotic, but the little villages managed to survive the longest. The Toclafane went after the major cities first."
"Better targets."
She made an affirmative noise. "I'd travel at night, find an inn or boarding house that had people holed up in it, and tell the story. I met him in one on the Welsh coast."
"What was he doing there?"
"I don't know, I never asked. He was part of the resistance that had formed. Got me to Ireland, and then he escorted me all the way to America."
Jack paused again, his fingers tangling in his tie -- first date meant he was going to make a damn good first impression -- and he laughed. "He was your personal bodyguard?"
"And every inch a gentleman," Martha agreed.
Jack had to stifle a laugh. Oh Ianto. Still playing James Bond at the end of the world.
Sometimes he forgot just how young the Welshman actually was.
"He was with me for a good month and a half."
"What happened?"
"Saxon was wise to me by then. Started offering rewards for people to turn me in. Someone did."
"And Ianto defended you."
"Shoved me out the door when the guards showed up, told me to run and not look back. I should have known that he knew you," she said. "His eyes always lit up when the story came around to you."
Jack smiled a little. That sounded like Ianto.
Martha laughed suddenly. “He had a funny nickname for me. Nightingale, like from Romeo and Juliet? He said I sang under the cover of night and stood for peace and hope.”
“That you did, Nightingale.”
“Jack Harkness, don’t you start in too!”
“I’ll talk to you later, Nightingale, I’ve got a date!”
redismycolour Challenge: Day Twenty-OneDate Written: 1/27/09
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 583
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Martha
Spoilers: DW 03, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This one stumped me for a while. I ended up reading a few of what everyone else said, so more Martha Jones! Title from the Dixie Chicks song "Top of the World".
In the departed villages. The nightingale,
Dust in the buried wood, flies on the grains of her wings
And spells on the winds of the dead his winter's tale.
Excerpt from "A Winter's Tale".
by Dylan Thomas
"He saved my life, y'know."
Jack stops mid-stride, almost overbalancing. "What?"
"He saved my life," Martha repeats, her voice tinny over the phone. "Your Ianto."
He'd talked to Martha about his team after everything was done, while they were decompressing somewhere quiet and safe and beautiful and alive. She'd said she was going home to her parents, and asked if Jack was going to stay with the Doctor. He'd been intending to lie to her, to tell her that the Doctor would be in safe hands -- he shouldn't be alone right now, they both knew it -- but then everything had just spilled out. Gwen's fiery spirit and Toshiko's quiet brilliance, Owen's snark and incredible competence. The one he'd talked about at length, though, was Ianto; how he'd been at Canary Wharf with her cousin and he'd almost brought the world to ruin for the woman he loved. How much he'd changed and grown into a person, a real person with his own place in the world. She teased him at length about falling in love ("look at you, being all human!") and had been ecstatic when she learned he was preparing to go on a date with the famous Mr. Jones.
"And you're just remembering this now?"
"Lots of things blur together from that time," she admitted. "I found a picture of him. Y'know, in the database."
Martha had been recruited into UNIT and Jack still didn't know how he felt about it. He'd wanted her in Torchwood, where he could keep an eye on her because he owed her, they all did, and if anything happened to her he'd never forgive himself.
"I started off in the UK, on the journey around the world. Everything was so chaotic, but the little villages managed to survive the longest. The Toclafane went after the major cities first."
"Better targets."
She made an affirmative noise. "I'd travel at night, find an inn or boarding house that had people holed up in it, and tell the story. I met him in one on the Welsh coast."
"What was he doing there?"
"I don't know, I never asked. He was part of the resistance that had formed. Got me to Ireland, and then he escorted me all the way to America."
Jack paused again, his fingers tangling in his tie -- first date meant he was going to make a damn good first impression -- and he laughed. "He was your personal bodyguard?"
"And every inch a gentleman," Martha agreed.
Jack had to stifle a laugh. Oh Ianto. Still playing James Bond at the end of the world.
Sometimes he forgot just how young the Welshman actually was.
"He was with me for a good month and a half."
"What happened?"
"Saxon was wise to me by then. Started offering rewards for people to turn me in. Someone did."
"And Ianto defended you."
"Shoved me out the door when the guards showed up, told me to run and not look back. I should have known that he knew you," she said. "His eyes always lit up when the story came around to you."
Jack smiled a little. That sounded like Ianto.
Martha laughed suddenly. “He had a funny nickname for me. Nightingale, like from Romeo and Juliet? He said I sang under the cover of night and stood for peace and hope.”
“That you did, Nightingale.”
“Jack Harkness, don’t you start in too!”
“I’ll talk to you later, Nightingale, I’ve got a date!”
