Earth-Forged, tosh and owen!

[Gwen Cooper-Williams]

Gwen didn’t always appreciate that she got stuck with the paperwork when Jack was out. She had been tucked away at her desk for far too long, and the stack of papers never seemed to get any smaller. It had only gotten worse since Torchwood had gone global. They were part of a bigger institution now, since it wasn’t just them and the other two groups anymore. London expected reports from time to time, and even if they didn’t get on well with Headquarters, they avoided breaking through the thin ice by at least keeping some of the rules.

But not all of them. Which explained Jack’s absence that afternoon in the Hub. He and Ianto had travelled to London earlier that morning to meet at Headquarters with Pete Tyler. Gwen was the one that insisted Jack actually play along for once. I might be regretting that, she thought wryly, as she stared down the remaining papers. She picked up another one, glanced through the computer logs on the desk, and filled in some of the information.

When she thought she couldn’t look at another word, she stood up and stretched. Her limbs ached slightly, but the stretch felt amazing. Gwen didn’t think she could possibly sit in that chair for one more minute. Maybe some tea would help wake her up and get her going. Ianto wasn’t there for his amazing touch, but she was Welsh dammit, she knew how to make her own cuppa. Gwen moved her shoulders and rolled her head around a bit, then made her way across the Hub and towards the little kitchen alcove. Owen and Tosh were both doing their own things, and it was quiet. Days at the Hub weren’t always interesting, but seriously, something could come up, couldn’t it? She supposed she should take a boring day over a crisis, but sometimes she lived for the madness.

After she retrieved a mug, she poured some of the water from the already heated kettle. She strained the leaves and mixed in some sugar. Gwen had just finished and taken a sip of the tea – not quite as good as Ianto’s, sadly – when a little alarm went off. It wasn’t something too threatening, or it would have been much louder. Since Jack wasn’t there, Gwen gave a quiet little thank you. Three people to whatever-it-was could be much worse if it was something major.

Raising her eyebrows she hurried back towards Tosh’s station. Finally, something to check out, and an excuse away from all those forms… Mug still in hand, she neared Tosh. “What is it, then?” she called out.

[Toshiko Sato]

She gently rested her fingers on the keyboard, but didn't press down on any keys. She took a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts away from Owen and their last conversation. Tosh was just about to start typing when an alarm went off. "Rift Activity" She said out loud hoping either Owen or Gwen might hear her. Her fingers started to move against the keys very fast and her thoughts on anything but work disappeared.

" Something just came through the rift, not sure what it is, but I " She stated in reply to Gwen's question, letting the 'I' drag on for a moment. She could feel Gwen hovering over her to look at the screen. Tosh took a deep breath, not wanting to be rude and ask Gwen to stay out of her bubble. It made it harder for her to work, harder, but not impossible. "I found the location" A red blinking light was on her screen on a particular section of eastern Cardiff. "Sending directions to your p....d...f...s" She dragged out the words as she worked her magic. "There you should have them" Tosh was more addressing Gwen then Owen. "We should move before whatever just came through the rift causes any damage."

[Owen Harper]

Owen had been up a large part of the night resorting things that were in his area of work, a lot of stuff that had been neglected over the time he was dead and even before that. He hadn't been back to his apartment in a while and had sat down in his chair and...since there was nothing to be worrying about in the immediate time, he had fallen asleep in his chair. He could have chosen the Torchwood sofa, but since Gwen was up to her ears in paperwork, he didn't want to cause any arguments. He had mellowed a fair bit since coming back here, but tired and getting yelled at would just make him be an arse back and he couldn't deal with the hassle.

It must have been two hours later when he jolted awake from the activity alarm. He blinked awake and stood up, stretching his muscles, which had cramped a little in sleeping in such a position but he made his quiet way over to the two women. "Alright, let me get an expresso in me," Owen said, a little groggily. He would wake up soon. He had gone with little sleep and performed brilliantly before, hell, this was nothing in comparison to the lack of sleep on a mission he'd had before.

He fiddled with the machine but came back. "On second thought, let's just ruddy well go. What's the plan?" Owen asked. He wasn't really in the mood to do a mission, but work was work.

[Gwen Cooper-Williams]

Gwen glanced as the information came up over Tosh’s computer screen. Rift activity. She leaned back, her brow furrowed slightly as she contemplated. Something must have come through, but apparently it wasn’t posing any immediately danger. At least it wasn’t yet. She nodded as Tosh suggested that they should get a move on. They definitely needed to make sure that they were ready to contain… whatever it was. Or possibly even save it. There was the odd person or otherwise that came through and needed their help to get back home.

Owen had come up, and Gwen looked over at him. He seemed to be tired – perhaps he had even fallen asleep. She gave him a somewhat weary look; he could have been up and doing something. What, she wasn’t sure; they hadn’t exactly had anything besides paperwork coming through, and it was mostly Jack’s stuff that Gwen had been catching up anyway. He went to get a drink to wake him up, and Gwen turned back to her desk. Taking one last swig of her tea, she left the rest of it unfinished on her desk.

She pulled open the drawer and reached inside, grabbing her pistol. After she checked it for ammo and safety, she stuck it in the small of her back. Spinning around, she made it back to Tosh just as Owen did. She smirked a little. He probably had given up, since Ianto was usually the one that knew how to handle most of that stuff.

“Grab a bit of scanning equipment and your weapons, and we’ll take the SUV.” Ianto and Jack had taken another vehicle to leave the heavier one with the tech ready for the team, in case of emergency. Apparently that had been a good idea, because here they were about to go.

A moment later, Gwen was heading with them towards the vehicle. Even if they were down two members of their team, they could handle it. Or so she hoped. They got in and took off. “Alright, Tosh,” Gwen said, switching on some of their positioning equipment. “Let’s track it down.”


(OoC: You guys can get them arriving and... whatever else you wanna do, really ^_^)

[Toshiko Sato]

Tosh grabbed her back, placed her work laptop in it along with a scanning device. She avoided looking at Owen for the most part. There was some acknowledgement the last time at the boardwalk, but nothing had been established and Tosh was starting to regret even trying to get something started with the man. After all he was whore and he treated her like she didn't exists, at least that's how he use to treat her before they died.

The memory of holding on to her own life as she sat watching him die through the monitor. She shook the thought off and moved the bag over her shoulder and picked up the black pre packed suitcase of equipment. Her eyes moved toward Owen only when Gwen resurfaced. "Who's driving?" Tosh moved across the floor and headed to bring the luggage to the car. She kept her personal bag and personal laptop at her side and found her seat in the back of the SUV.

She waited for the others to get in the vehicle. The vehicle trip seemed to go by fast. Anything her teammates said went in one ear and out the other. Tosh had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling, but there was nothing to back up this feeling. Tosh got out of the vehicle only to finally hear the words coming out of her teammate's ears.