![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aviv_b_artworkRATING: G/PG
WARNING: None
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Gwen with a dash of Jack.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 4665 (posted in two parts)
SUMMARY: Ianto and Gwen travel to nothern Wales to track down an alien. Not CoE complaint!
Written for Challenge 12 - Theme: Spring; truncate, demonstrable, earth, "It was a week before (s)he could walk normally again."
Posted in two parts because LJ is not behaving today.
PART I
Gwen didn’t like the idea from the very start. Sure it was a chance to see some beautiful northern Welsh countryside. But really, why did she have to go on this trip? Tosh could have gone but she wasn’t suitable for the mission, or so Jack said.
She sat in the passenger seat of Ianto’s car and pouted. She liked Ianto, but a two day trip with him just wasn’t how she wanted to spend her weekend. Rhys would be heading home from work about now and she sighed thinking about how she would miss his arms around her when she went to sleep tonight.
Ianto looked over at Gwen at the sound of her sighing. “Come on Gwen, it’s not going to be that bad.”
“I still don’t know why Jack couldn’t have made Tosh go. She doesn’t have a life outside of Torchwood.”
Ianto gently tut-tutted her. “Well she doesn’t ride for one thing. And Jack felt that you and I could more easily pass as a couple without raising a lot of questions. So let’s have some fun with this, my darling, wonderful bride of exactly one year.”
Gwen snorted. “Oh yeah, I can ride. Four lessons when I was ten years old and suddenly I’m National Velvet. And you, have you ever even been on a horse?”
“A couple of times. But as I recall they were limited to the ponies at the zoo.”
Gwen chuckled. “You mean where they put the little ones on them and walk them in a circle. You must have been, what, four?”
Ianto put on his most serious face. “Oh no, I'm sure I was at least six,” he said before his face transformed into a small smile.
They continued their friendly banter for the rest of the drive. By the time they reached their destination Gwen had gotten into the spirit of the trip. “I think a really nice husband would let me have the bed and he would take the floor.”
“And I am of course, a very nice husband.”
“Well I’d actually have to ask Jack that…”
“Oi! None of that my little Welsh cake, we don’t want our fellow guests thinking we’re into kinky stuff.”
Gwen looked over at Ianto with the most innocent look on her face. “Why not?”
Ianto rolled his eyes. They both burst out laughing. Ianto shook his head. “Jack was a bit daft sending us out here, wasn’t he?”
“Aliens in
Ianto shrugged. A little while later they were pulling into a dirt area at the front of a tidy little whitewashed farmhouse. “Well here we are.”
“And where is that?” Gwen said as she opened the car door.
“About four miles from Betws-y-Coed.”
They got out of the car and looked around. A few horses were out in a fenced yard nibbling on grass and enjoying the early evening late spring weather. There was a small horse barn around back but otherwise the place looked deserted.
They knocked on the door of the farmhouse but got no answer. Just as Gwen was going to suggest that they drive on to Betws-y-Coed, a woman answered the door. She was probably in her mid-sixties, short and a little stout, with rosy cheeks and a big smile. She had a gingham apron on which was dusted in flour. “You must be the Harknesses. It’s lovely to meet you.”
She went to extend her hand and realizing that they too were covered in flour, she wiped them quickly on her apron. “I’m Mrs. Miller, but call me Dorothy. Been doing a bit of baking for tomorrow’s breakfast. Hope you have good appetites as it will be a full traditional Welsh breakfast.”
She hesitated for a moment as she realized that her guests were still standing at the front door.
“Now where is my head, come in, come in, you must be tired after the long drive from
As they both went to enter the house, Gwen turned her face to Ianto and with a look of mischief said, “Sweetheart, would you get the luggage, it’s so heavy?”
Ianto opened his mouth to retort and wisely shut it again. “Of course darling, anything for you.”
As Dorothy led Gwen into the house, Ianto heard Dorothy say, “Cor, you caught yourself a good one there, love. Such a gentlemen and good looking too.”
For reasons even she didn’t understand, Gwen found herself blushing. “That’s OK, I was a young bride once, now as Mac's gone it just me and my son, Achoo.” Dorothy smiled as she led Gwen back to the kitchen.
Noticing the curious look on Gwen’s face Dorothy continued, “See when they asked us what we wanted to name him, my husband sneezed at that very moment and that’s how our baby boy got his name.”
“What have I gotten into? She’s mad, totally mad.”
At that moment, a man in his forties knocked at a side door. “And here he is now,” Dorothy said letting the man into the kitchen. “Achoo” he sneezed as he kicked off his boots.
“Takes after his father, he does.”
The man shook his head at his mother good-naturedly. “My mam loves to tell that story. My name is George actually,” he said shaking Gwen’s hand. “And I do take after my father in that I’m allergic to hay.”
Meanwhile, Ianto had gotten his small duffle out of the car boot and was trying to lift Gwen’s luggage out of the boot as well. “How did she manage to get this in here?” he wondered. “Stupid thing must weigh two stone.”
Finally, he succeeded and began to carry the bags up to the house. A middle age man met him at the front door taking the bags from him. “Name’s George,” he told Ianto. “Mam calls me Achoo cause I’m allergic to hay,” punctuating the statement with an eye roll and a sneeze.
Ianto followed him up to the second floor and into a small bedroom. Observing the look on Ianto’s face, George apologized. “Yeah, sorry about that. I know you’re here to celebrate your wedding anniversary but a pipe in the bathroom burst in the room we were going to give you and this is the only other one available. Feel free to move things around, if you like,” George said winking at Ianto as he left the room.
Ianto smiled as he looked at the two single beds. Gwen came up a while later, laughed at the single beds and began to unpack her things.
“You bought riding boots.” Ianto was incredulous. “You actually bought riding boots. If that isn’t demonstrable proof that you really wanted to go on this mission, then I don’t know what is.”
They were tired and decided to turn in early; they would leave the two beds alone tonight and push them together the next morning. Gwen changed in the tiny bathroom while Ianto stripped down to his pants and slipped under the covers. When Gwen came out hoping to model her teddy bear pajamas for Ianto, she found him sound asleep, covers pulled up to his waist. He looked even younger asleep, all the stress smoothed from his face and his dark hair curling at the back of his neck. She noticed something on his back and moved just a bit closer to get a better look. She gasped but fortunately, Ianto did not awaken. A long pink scar ran down from his shoulder blade almost to his waist where it was truncated by another scar running at a ninety degree angle across his torso.
“
“Thank goodness he’s got Jack to rely on. I always thought Jack was teasing when he’d say that he had to massage alien medicine into Ianto’s back to keep the pain tolerable.”
Gwen had long harbored just the tiniest bit of jealousy toward Jack’s seemingly inexplicable preference for Ianto, but as she thought about how much this young man had suffered and how well he and Jack suited each other, she felt the last vestiges of resentment slip away. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Sleep well sweetheart,” she said as she slipped into her bed.
***
The next morning after a mountainous breakfast, George took them out to the barn to see the horses. There were a dozen; all beautifully cared for, the stalls clean with fresh bedding and the horses munching on oats and hay.
Gwen and Ianto were surprised when George told them that he did all the cleaning and feeding by himself.
“Well, I’ve got naught all to do all day except take care of the horses and the barn. We don’t get many riders this early in the year; when we get busy later in the summer, there’s a couple of kids from town who come out and help in exchange for getting to ride the horses.”
George matched them up with quiet horses after learning that they really weren’t experienced riders. “So what made you decide to go riding for a weekend to celebrate your first anniversary?”
Gwen and Ianto looked at each other in horror. This was not a discussion they had anticipated. Gwen spoke up. “It was my idea really. It seemed so romantic, and Ianto, he just doesn’t know how to say, ‘no.’”
George chuckled.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Ianto said doing his best to look a bit embarrassed.
They headed out for a day of riding, but an hour in Gwen’s horse began to try to turn around. The chestnut mare was gentle enough, but it was obvious she didn’t want to go further. Upon inspection, George found that one of her shoes had worked loose. “Well, I hate to spoil your afternoon…”
“No we understand,” Gwen replied. “Maybe I could ride your horse and we could go a bit further on our own.” George was a bit concerned as his horse, while a gelding was a bit livelier. He finally relented and drew them a map of the path he was going to take them on.
“Now assuming everything goes well, you should reach a glade with a little pond by lunchtime. You can go a bit further on the path as it runs back into the forest, but don’t go any further than where the path divides. The right hand side runs into an open area of boggy earth while the left one…well there’s a man who lives in a cave there. He’s a bit odd, kind of hermit like. Not dangerous but he doesn’t like to be disturbed. I don’t know how he survives really, but he does. If you do see him just back the horses up and leave quietly.”
George helped Gwen onto his horse. The horse danced a bit at the feel of a lighter rider and then settled down. He began the walk back to the farm leading the young mare along.
“Starts getting dark around seven,” he called out. “Please be back by then.”
They rode for another hour until they came across the pond George had described. Dismounting they let the horses graze having been assured by George that they wouldn’t run off. They sat by the side of the pond eating their lunches and enjoying the view.
“It really is beautiful here. Any energy readings?” Gwen asked.
Ianto slipped the alien detection device out of his pocket. To his surprise it was picking up a small but distinct signal. It wasn’t one he was familiar with He showed it to Gwen, who shook her head. “Don’t recognize it, but it can’t be very big or very many of them with a signal like that.”
They finished their lunches and walked around a bit to determine where the signal was coming from. When they realized that the signal was coming from a little further down the path, Ianto insisted that they leave the horses by the pond where they were happily grazing.
“If its an item that’s fallen into the boggy area, we won’t want to take the horses in and at least here we know they’re safe.”
“And what if its in the direction of the hermit?”
“If we can talk to him we’ll see if he’s seen anything strange, if not we’ll just leave him alone just like George said.”
They walked down the path for about twenty minutes until they came to where the path divided. The energy signal was clearly off to the left. “Time to meet the strange man in the forest,” she said whispering the last few words. Ianto grinned and they began to walk in the direction of the signal. As they walked the signal got steadily stronger.
Part II: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/97098.html
