Ficlet: Travel Plans

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Travel Plans
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: With Archie requesting their assistance at Torchwood Two, Ianto expect to travel by train. Jack has other ideas.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 515 – Road Trip at slashthedrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.




Ianto set down his coffee mug down and stared at Jack in disbelief. “Let me get this straight; Archie’s requested some assistance identifying the contents of a box from Torchwood One that never got unpacked and you’re suggesting we drive all the way up to Scotland instead of doing the sensible thing and taking the train, or better yet, flying?”


“Why not? Who doesn’t love a road trip?”


“I don’t, especially if it means ten hours of motorway driving,” Ianto huffed, folding his arms over his chest and giving Jack a disgusted look. “That’s not my idea of fun.


“So we avoid the motorways and take the scenic route, see a bit of the British Isles for once. So what if it takes us two or three days to get there? Archie’s not in any mad rush, he just said he could use our input when we can spare the time. With the Rift going through a slow phase, and more than enough people to deal with anything that might crop up while we’re gone, now is as good a time as any.”


Ianto couldn’t really argue with that logic; the team currently numbered a dozen personnel, nobody was out sick or injured or on vacation, and according to Tosh the Rift would be largely inactive for the next ten days or so. Her ability to predict its behaviour was by now considerably closer to being an exact science than the informed guesswork of a few years ago. Unfortunately, that meant Ianto couldn’t come up with a single reason why they couldn’t do as Jack was suggesting.


“Fine, we’ll go; I’ll plot a route and find somewhere for an overnight stay…”


“Make sure to take in as many places of interest as you can.”


“Places of interest?”


“Of course! Stratford-Upon-Avon, Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, York, the Lake District. Maybe a stopover in Edinburgh so we can visit the castle…”


“Jack, this isn’t supposed to be a pleasure trip.”


“Sure it is, otherwise we’d be going by train… Do you think we can go through the Yorkshire Dales?”


“The only things you’ll see there are the same things we see outside Cardiff; fields of sheep.”


“Ah, but they’d be Yorkshire sheep, not Welsh sheep!”


“You’re weird.”


“Please?” Jack turned on the puppydog eyes. “I’ve seen that vet thing on TV and the scenery is just so beautiful! We can have a picnic, watch the spring lambs frolicking on the hillsides…”


“It’s March, we’ll freeze our arses off picknicking!”


“We can sit in the car at the side of the road!”


“You’ve got an answer for everything, haven’t you?”


“So is that a yes?”


Jack looked so excited Ianto didn’t have the heart to say no. “I suppose so.”


“Yay! It’ll be fun, I promise. We can book into a bed and breakfast place every night, and drive home by a different route.”


Mentally Ianto revised the two-day road trip into a three- or four-day scenic tour each way. “It better not snow.”



The End