Almost Perfect

JACK IS IN FOR A TREAT WHEN HE CHECKS THE CCTV

Gwen awoke, chewing hair. She realised, gradually, that it wasn’t hers, and woke with a guilty start.

She and Ianto were wrapped round each other on the Hub’s battered sofa. Gwen remembered they’d worked through the night and then just sat down, just for a second, just to catch their breath. And… how late was it?

She jabbed Ianto in the ribs.

Ianto gave a sudden snore, and snapped awake. He gazed around, blearily. ‘Gwen… what?’ For an instant, his face was dishevelled, hair unkempt, clothes rumpled. Then he shook himself like a cat, and everything fell into place. Perfectly.

Gwen narrowed her eyes. ‘Ianto! We’ve been asleep!’

Ianto stood up, and clumped unevenly towards his desk. ‘I’m missing a shoe,’ he muttered.

‘Oh god, I’m so tired,’ wailed Gwen. ‘I haven’t slept properly all week, and now this.’

Ianto checked the clock on his PC. ‘We’ve been asleep for four hours. I just shut my eyes, just for a moment…’ He smiled at Gwen, encouragingly. ‘I’ll make some coffee.’

Gwen stumbled over to her machine, and pulled up the latest reading of the energy cloud. It had increased, no, doubled, while they’d been asleep. She stared, aghast.

Ianto joined her, and they sat there for a few minutes, groggily, sipping their coffee and watching the world end.

‘It’s like a net,’ sighed Ianto. ‘Very tightly woven. Hovering just a few feet over Cardiff.’

Gwen nodded. ‘And getting ready to drop.’

‘Right,’ said Ianto, firmly. ‘We need to find Jack. And we need to get the device to him.’

‘Right,’ said Gwen. They sat there, watching the energy net weaving itself tighter and tighter.

‘What’s unique about Jack?’ asked Ianto. ‘We need something we can trace him by.’

‘Oh, you can’t track smugness,’ said Gwen.