"Owen! Tosh! Gwen! Get your asses here now!"
All three heard their bosses command and approached it all rather differently. Owen slowly left the hot house with feet scuffing against the floor as though he was a child being dragged out on a picnic with their family when they'd rather be hidden away at home playing Pac-Man or reading comics. He even let out an unhappy huff and had his shoulders hunched as he threw down his spray bottle of water and stick he used to prod the alien plants to get a better look at them. The glass door was let to slam behind him as Owen took each step along the catwalk at a snail's pace, annoyed that his important spraying and prodding had been interrupted. It seems to take him forever to descend the stairs and make it to an impatient and angry Jack's side.
Tosh has pretty much been there already, all she had to do was swivel her chair to the left, and she was facing Jack in his office door. But with Tosh it was never so simple, she was midway through writing a block of code and not wanting to risk forgetting it, she kept typing with her eyes glued to the monitor as her body slowly turned. Even with that part written she struggled to drag her gaze away, excited to test it immediately rather than after whatever Jack had to say in his foul mood.
That left Gwen who had unfortunately been in a rather precarious situation at the time, and she couldn't just shout for them to give her a minute all the way from the loo without feeling like a total dolt. Jack's voice managed to carry all the way down to her, but she doubted hers would be able to do the same the other way. Working as quickly as she could, Gwen had raced from the lavatories, along the seemingly endless maze of corridors, around the rift manipulator, and finally up the short flight of stairs to where the desks were situated. To her dismay, Owen hadn't even started on the stairs down front the catwalk, and Tosh was still gazing at the screen out of the corner of her eye when she arrived. Gwen felt like she'd run a marathon and for what? She was the first one there fully. She could have just taken a leisurely stroll like Owen was. But it had all been because Gwen didn't fancy being raged at today.
No matter how quick any of them (Gwen) was, it didn't please Jack at all. He was pissed. Downright and absolutely fuming. Angrier than a caged bull. All the metaphors and similes you could find to explain that he was angry. Jack's eye twitched, he ground his teeth together, and too many veins popped out. He held his power stance, arms crossed with his legs out wide. It practically radiated how unhappy he was even a blind man could tell by just stepping into the room. When Owen finally joined them, he was the first to speak.
"Go on then Jack, what's got your knickers in a twist."
"Did Ianto tell you where he was going?" Jack asked smoothly as if he wasn't visibly seething.
Owen looked at Tosh and Tosh looked at Gwen and Gwen looked at Owen. The doctor, clearly the bravest to poke the sleeping bear, answered.
"He's in London, right? Talking to the UNIT lot and Martha? He left a notice but no coffee, ungrateful."
"That's what we all thought, right? We all got the email." The trio watched Jack closely, heads bobbing up and down in sync as they all stayed silent. They'd all received one, detailed on what they should and shouldn't do with various things or areas of the Hub. "Turns out, he is not in London nor was he ever going to be in London because there was no UNIT meeting scheduled and Martha herself had no clue."
"So he...lied?" Gwen tried, eyes looking over Jack's shoulder rather than catching his gaze to save herself being scrutinised under it. She shuddered slightly at the memory of facing it once and how she thought it worse than the judgement of God. Gwen caught Jack's head shaking, a quick and simple motion.
