Adventfic Day 9 - Snow

[silkendreammaid]

Title:  Snow
Author: silkendreammaid  

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Torchwood or the characters within.
Rating: PG13 
Warning: Language
Characters:  Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness

Note: Written for the 2011 Advent Challenge. Prompt #15 taken from the 2009 prompt list. 

Author’s Note: Ninth in the series that started in Cold …  i  was too tired to trust myself to posting it correctly last night but it is probably still the 9th somewhere in the world so its not really late..lol

Summary:   December is starting off unseasonably cold. Torchwood has one dead alien and another one missing. There’s also the sudden disappearance of Cardiff’s rats.  

In this chapter Jack is still in the dark and Ianto wakes up

 

 

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Snow 

 

Jack groaned and rolled his aching head on his shoulders. His spine cracked loudly but painlessly in response.  He shivered. Damn, but it was cold. It felt as if he was covered in snow. 

“Jack! Jack!”  

The shouting was loud and urgent and he grunted. “’m here.” He rolled over and opened his eyes. It was dark and he blinked furiously trying to clear his sight before he remembered. His coat was over his head and he tugged it off. He let out a groan. He was still blind. 

“Gwen?” He called back, his head throbbing. 

“Oh, thank God Jack! Are you alright?” 

“I still can’t see anything. Where are you? What happened?” he shouted. 

“I’m fine but I can’t get to you. The staircase has collapsed under all the snow.” 

“Snow?” Jack felt slightly shell-shocked. “What snow? Where did it come from?”  He brushed at his clothes and then patted the ground around him. Snow. He was sitting in snow. He pulled his greatcoat closer around him. 

“I don’t know. But there was an explosion and the light went out and it started snowing very heavily,” Gwen loudly told him. “I’m guessing you didn’t die then? Because you’re still blind?”  

“I guess not. It doesn’t feel like I died,” Jack replied as he explored his surroundings. “Ah, the Coelsi is still here. He’s still in one piece. And there are some pieces of that box here.” He collected the pieces of metal that his searching fingers had recovered and put them in his pocket. 

“The temperature is still falling,” Gwen informed him. “And I still can’t call anyone.” 

Jack pursed his lips and thought for a moment. “Perhaps the box wasn’t responsible for the heat source. Did you scan the area after it blew up?” 

“No, I’ll just go get it.”  

Jack listened to Gwen’s hurrying footsteps and began to crawl around the area. Not being able to see was not helping and he was sorely tempted to shoot himself to fix it. He sighed, feeling disappointed the explosion hadn’t been big enough to do the job for him. He ran quick assessing hands over himself. A few bruises and a deep internal ache. Nothing life-threatening – unfortunately - he surmised, he was just suffering from the explosion’s shockwave. 

He found several more pieces of the box and put them in his pocket with the others. His fingers were starting to hurt from the coldness of the snow and he shook them occasionally, trying to keep the numbness away. Goddess, but he’d hated it the last time he’d had frostbite and he really didn’t want to lose his fingers again. 

“Jack?!” 

“Yes, Gwen?” He turned his head to where the stairs had once been. 

“Temperature’s dropped about ten degrees since the last reading. There are heavy clouds above us and it’s still snowing. It’s just falling straight down. There’s no wind at all.” 

“And the heat source?” he asked. 

“It’s showing as being here or very close to here.” 

“So it wasn’t that little box,” Jack commented. “Have another look around up there, Gwen. I’ll do what I can down here. Can you get the rope from the SUV?” 

“Already got it,” Gwen’s reply was slightly smug and Jack could hear her pleased smile.  

“Careful or you’ll be as efficient as Ianto,” he teased back and heard her laugh. “Alright then, tie it off and drop it down with a body bag. I’ll wrap the Coelsi for Owen,” Jack stopped and frowned. They were quite a ways from where the first Coelsi had been found. Forty, maybe fifty kilometres. Something niggled at the back of his mind.  It couldn’t have made it that far from here in the state it had been in. Not on its own. Unless Cardiff had been the point of origin and the second Coelsi had made its way from Cardiff to here. But why? Had it too been looking for the heat source? 

Jack shook his head. That was something to figure out later when they were back and warm in the Hub. For now he had to concentrate on finding the heat source and getting back to his nice warm Hub. 

“Rope’s tied off and hanging down where the stirs were,” Gwen called. “And I’ve dropped the body bag down too.” 

“Thanks Gwen. I’ll call you when I’ve got it bagged.” 

Jack began to crawl blindly to where he remembered the stairs had been. He found the rope and bag easily enough but he paused for a long moment, listening to Gwen moving overhead and feeling the snow under his knees. Thoughtful, he dropped a hand down to his Webley.

 

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Hungry. Hungry. Heat. Hungry. 

“…hungry,” Ianto murmured and rolled over seeking more warmth and nearly falling off the table. “Wha!?” he woke up completely disorientated and he gripped at the hard table edges as he looked around him. 

“You’re awake!” Tosh’s voice had him turning to look up the stairs and aw Tosh hurrying down them. 

“Tosh?” Ianto asked sounding and looking completely confused. 

“It’s okay, Ianto. You collapsed and you’ve been sleeping,” she informed him as she came closer and pulled at the blankets covering his legs. 

“I don’t remember going to sleep,” he murmured as he tried to steady himself. His mind was whirling and there were feelings not his own that pulled at him. He looked at Tosh. “I collapsed?” 

“Yes, Owen found you in the passage near the Archives about half an hour after Jack and Gwen left.”

“Jack! Are they back yet?” He asked urgently as he tried to sort himself out. “That heat source!” 

Tosh bit her lip. “They’re not back yet. Owen’s just left to go after them. We lost all communication with them and a short while ago there was a surge of energy where they were.” 

Ianto slid off the table and nearly fell over. Tosh caught him and helped him stand upright. 

“Okay, we need coffee and then we’ll see what we can do to figure this out,” he said determinedly. He pulled at the blanket around his shoulders. “Where’s my jacket? Is it getting colder in here?” 

“Yes,” Tosh replied. “I’ve been monitoring it and it’s strange. We’re freezing in here but the underlying bedrock has warmed up by a full degree.” 

“Because of that heat source? Is it all under Cardiff?” 

“No. It’s concentrated right under the rift manipulator.” She looked soberly at Ianto. “That can’t be good,” she said. 

“Indeed, or well, no more so than normal,” Ianto calmly replied with a reassuring smile and tried to ignore the alien echoes that followed them up the stairs. 

Heat. Hungry. 

 

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 Continued in Red

 

 

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