Ficlet: A Terrible Thing

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: A Terrible Thing
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Tosh, Team.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 641
Spoilers: Greeks Bearing Gifts.
Summary: Tosh’s wishes she’d never let Mary put the pendant on her.
Written For: topaz_eyes’s prompt ‘Any, any, a mind is a terrible thing to read’, at threesentenceficathon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
 


 
When she’d fastened the pendant around Tosh’s neck, Mary had talked about it as if it was a good thing, something wonderful and fun, thar would enable her to hear people’s innermost thoughts. But now that Tosh was wearing it, now that she was the one listening to what the people around her were thinking, she realised it wasn’t like that at all. There was nothing fun about it, not for her.

 
She didn’t want to know Owen’s opinion of her, it stung to hear what the man she kind of thought she might love really thought of her, and she didn’t want Gwen’s patronising pity either, looking down on her for the way she was dressed. More than anything, she didn’t want to be privy to what her colleagues were thinking about each other, because even though she’d suspected they were sleeping together, in spite of Gwen already having a boyfriend she claimed to love, having it confirmed was too painful. It made her feel dirty to hear the intimate details of their trysts. Gwen didn’t even feel guilty for cheating on the man she lived with, not that Tosh could tell.
 

That was bad enough but hearing Ianto’s thoughts was almost worse than all the rest put together, because he was in so much pain, and yet none of them were even aware of it. He hid what he was feeling so well, and it made her feel guilty, like she’d touched something private and personal, something that he kept hidden because he didn’t want anyone else to know about it.

 
At the same time, it worried her. Ianto shouldn’t have to suffer in silence. Maybe he felt he deserved to, because of what he’d done, but he’d only been trying to save someone he loved, just as she had been when she’d committed treason to save her mother. Should she tell Jack about it? But if she did, he’d want to know how she knew, and what could she tell him? That someone had given her a mind-reading pendant? Besides, it would be like betraying Ianto’s confidence if she said anything to anyone. She’d have to try to help him without letting on what she’d overheard…
 

She was thinking in circles, the pendant messing with her head. It had her trying to figure out what she should do about things she shouldn’t even know about. That was a slippery slope; she should take the pendant off, give it back, forget about what she’d learned, or at least push it to the back of her mind and not think about it, but somehow she couldn’t.
 

It wasn’t that she wanted to know more, because she didn’t, but the genie was already out of the bottle; there was no way to put it back, no way to undo her eavesdropping. She could Retcon herself, she supposed, but Retcon would take away everything from the past few days, and that would cause more complications. If Jack wasn’t already suspicious, he would be if she suddenly forgot everything she’d been working on.

 
She wished she’d never seen the pendant, never met Mary, that she could rewind time and not even go to that bar. This was all wrong; no one should have the ability to read other people’s minds, it was an invasion of privacy, and it made her feel ashamed. Worse, it destroyed all her illusions about the people she worked with, people she’d thought were her friends… She didn’t know how she’d ever face them again, not after everything she’d heard, and if they found out, it would completely destroy whatever trust they had in her. She was trapped in a situation she never should have got herself into in the first place, all because she’d been feeling lonely and overlooked, and had gone out by herself for a drink.
 

 
The End
 



 
 

Comments

[mrs_sweetpeach]

Poor Tosh. I hope she gets rid of that necklace!

[badly_knitted]

She eventually admits everything to Jack and the necklace is destroyed. It's a rough road for her though. Mary is an alien who's using Tosh to get what she wants. She doesn't get it.

Thank you!