Torchwood One's New Second In Command

Part 2: A surprising transfer

                  The last couple months as a Torchwood trainee had been absolutely mental. The training itself was more hands on than what he had expected. Every month, he would be passed around between the four different branches of the agency to be used as a lowly intern. Honestly, he felt more like a slave than anything. People ordered him around all day, asking him to get coffee and later to make it himself when people discovered that his coffee was the best thing they had ever tasted. The first months he spent it working with the archivists and the researches of Torchwood. The two department were located in the science building. It was hidden underground under a little coffee shop that served as entrance. At first, he had helped by working in the coffee shop trying to make it look as authentic and innocent as possible. But later, when the chief archivist had learned about his eidetic memory he had been snatched by the archivist and scientific departments to be used as a glorified research engine. He spent his mornings fetching coffee for the teams and organizing the archives and labs at the request of his trainor, and his afternoon were used to learn about all the protocols and the different forms of life and technology Torchwood had encountered.

                  Luckily, since his day had quite a fixed routine, he could easily organize his free time around his work hours. He worked 6 days of the week and started work at 8 am and finished at 7 pm. It left him the Sundays and evenings to finish unpacking and visit a bit the city. He surprisingly got along well with the small group of three trainees like him that had started out their training in the research department. Rory, a tall gangly ginger man was from Manchester and was by no exaggeration a computer genius. He had wanted to follow his uncle's footstep who he knew had been working in torchwood for the past six year. Elizabeth, but Ianto had quickly discovered that the girl hated to be called that and preferred the name Eli, was an incredible internationally renowned athlete. She had found from her social media that she was in the top 3 female boxing champions in the UK. If he had to describe her in one word, it would be badass. She did not let people walk all over her or the people she cared for without fighting back. He like having her on his side sometimes. Finally, Claudia was the last of her group, not unlike him she had graduated a year earlier and had one or twice won first place in national maths and scientific competitions in the past. He already knew that she was aiming for a position in the scientific research team. The group spent a lot of their free time together, it was easier to talk with people that knew what kind job and training they were going through every day. While Ianto and Claudia seemed to be the quieter and more level headed of the group often ending up being the peace makers during tenser than usual days on the job, Ianto had to admit that Eli's strong personality and Rory's adventurous side, sometimes helped the two quieter members of the group get out of their workaholic shells.

                  Today was a good example, the two trouble makers had convinced everyone to go out for some drinks in a bar in the centre of London. Ianto usually preferred a calmer and more sober atmosphere, since the smell of alcohol and pubs full of drunk people usually reminded him of his father. However, he had finally relented. The week had been more stressful than usual. The Head archivist Professor Martin had been stricter on him than usual, asking him questions out of nowhere and giving more complicated and longer tasks than usual. Even he had to admit that he needed a night out with friends around one or two beers. The pub Little Ivy had been a pleasant surprise. The music was nice but not too loud that you could still talk to each other comfortably. Ianto went to get them their first round: beer for Rory, gin tonic for Claudia, a glass of wine for Claudia and he got himself a simple jack n coke. They all spent the first half hour talking about their week and the new tasks they had been assigned. But he slowly started to feel embarrassed when the conversation turned to him and their superior Professor Martin choosing to spend a lot of time training him.