Quiet Tiger's Retreat - Ficlet: One Specific Image

Title: One Specific Image
Author: Quiet Tiger
Pairing/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Owen, Gwen, Tosh
Rating: R for language
Word Count: 1132
Continuity: Set earlyish season 2, spoilers for season 1.

Summary: How will the team help Owen remember who he is?

Note: For jantolution Challenge #21, prompts crackfic and amnesia.


~*~

Jack enjoyed waking up slowly with Ianto at his side, maybe fooling around a little bit with him before having to climb up to his office to be the boss.

Today, however, he didn’t get to wake slowly. He was woken up by Ianto jerking awake at sounds of yelling and screeching from upstairs. Jack pushed himself out of bed, pulled on trousers, and climbed the ladder to his office. Ianto was right behind him, and in addition to trousers had managed to tug a shirt on and button it while on the ladder.

There was bedlam in the Hub. The shouting had been Owen, who was standing on the couch and pointing his weapon at Gwen and Tosh. Gwen appeared to be trying to placate him, and Tosh seemed to be inching away, if the furtive glances towards Jack’s office were any indication. The screeching had been Myfanwy; she was either hungry, excited, or angry.

Jack raised his hands in defense to try to calm down Owen. “Whoa, Owen, what’s wrong?”

Owen twisted in his direction, gun still trained on Gwen. “What’s wrong? I’m trapped underground, there’s a dead alien thing in that lab down there, and there’s a bloody dinosaur flying around barking at me! And who the fuck are you?”

Helpless, Jack glanced towards Gwen. “What’s going on?”

“He just went crazy, Jack. Tosh and I came in a little early, and we woke him up, and he didn’t recognize us, and had a bit of a freak-out.”

Still inching her way towards the office, Tosh kicked a small pill bottle across the floor. Owen jerked towards the sound, which gave Gwen the opportunity to wrench the gun out of his hands and train it back on him.

With Owen slightly under control, Jack calmly asked him, “What are you doing, Owen?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know where I am, who you are, or what we’re doing here together!” Myfanwy swooped a little low. “Or when the hell we are!”

“Um, Jack?” Ianto tapped him on the shoulder, and Jack turned towards him while still watching Owen twitch. “I think he made a mistake.”

Looking at the bottle Ianto had picked up, Jack groaned. “Owen… You took Retcon.”

Taking refuge on Jack’s other side, Tosh made a squeaking sound of comprehension. “He said last night he had a bad headache. He must have confused the bottles.”

Jack frowned. “The Retcon is locked up so things like this don’t happen.”

“He must have borrowed a bottle to keep in the med bay.”

Ianto’s exasperated huff would have been amusing at another time, but right now Jack was worried about his medic. He’d obviously taken enough Retcon to wipe out quite some time. It wasn’t as if Jack could just explain the last several years to him… “Owen. You work here. I’m Jack, your boss. This is Ianto. And you’ve met Gwen and Tosh.” Had sex with Gwen. Been lusted after by Tosh. Was shot by Ianto. Shot Jack, who fired him soon afterwards.

Owen was quite the central figure of Torchwood Three.

“You’re our doctor. You take care of us when we’re hurt, and you work with alien beings all the time, like the one down on the slab.”

“Are you mad? I’m from London, not Torchwood. And why is all this office space in a tube station?!”

“You have to trust us. Trust me.” Jack turned up his ‘trust me’ vibes to try to get Owen calm. “We’re here to help you. You’ve taken a pill that causes amnesia. We use it to keep our business a secret. You’ve just taken too much. It’s 2007, Owen.”

“It is not!”

“It’s 2007. You work here. You’ve worked here for three years. You like your job. You like all of us.”

“You like my coffee.” Bless Ianto. Jack couldn’t do this by himself while Gwen was busy waiting to shoot, and Tosh seemed flustered.

At Ianto’s words, Owen frowned and stood slightly less defensively. “I do remember good coffee. Coffee and ties.” Everyone looked over at Ianto, who shrugged at his current tie-less state.

Taking an extra second to check out Ianto, Jack thought frantically. “So you remember Ianto of all things…” Must be the trauma from the shoulder wound, or maybe Ianto’s coffee was better than sex with Gwen.

“I do make quite an impression.”

“Well, I know that.” Jack took a moment to flash a wicked grin at his young lover.

Owen cocked his head. “Wait. You two…” He grimaced like his point was on the tip of his tongue and he just couldn’t quite think of what it was.

Blushing very slightly, Ianto nodded his head once. “Us. You once said I was Jack’s part-time shag.”

He did? Jack was going to have to have a talk with Owen, if he could ever remember who he was.

Staring at them as if he had laser vision, Owen puzzled, “Part-time… No…”

“Do you need a little demonstration?” Jack grabbed Ianto’s beautifully toned arse and pulled him close, kissing him hard even as he protested at the public display. After another few seconds Ianto relented and kissed him properly.

“Augh! I remember now!” Ianto jerked away at Owen’s exclamation, and Jack grinned at him before turning to Owen, who looked more relaxed. “I—Yes. I am your doctor. And I work here, and drink coffee and do autopsies on aliens.”

Ianto mumbled, “And get underneath everyone’s skin.”

“What was that, tea-boy?”

“I said you keep us all very healthy and we’re grateful that you’re back with us.” Owen talked excitedly with Gwen while Ianto muttered, “Bloody git.”

Jack squeezed Ianto’s shoulder and flashed a smile at Tosh, who returned it. “I guess everything’s back to normal.”

As she handed Owen his gun, Gwen thought out loud, “I wonder why it was Jack and Ianto’s relationship that brought your memory back.”

Jack pulled Ianto against his side. “Well, we do make quite a memorable image.”

Tosh rolled her eyes but smiled. “Quite a modest one, too.”

“I can’t help it if we’re the solution to memory loss. Hmm, we might have something there.”

Rolling his pretty blue eyes and definitely not smiling, Ianto said, “No, Jack. We don’t. I’ll go get the morning’s coffee started. You should have a talk with Owen about storing Retcon without permission.”

Jack smiled again as the morning got off to a more typical start. Ianto made coffee, Gwen talked with Owen, and Tosh opened a few programs on her computer. Even Myfanwy had calmed down once Gwen had gotten Owen’s weapon away from him. Yes, a typical morning at Torchwood.

Shivering, Jack recalled that on typical mornings he wore a shirt.

Until he could convince everyone to start a much more comfortable dress code…

~*~

A/N: I can't quite figure out Owen's *look* as Jack and Ianto smooch in End of Days. :)