Fic: The First Crack
Title: The First Crack
Fandom: Torchwood
Character/Pairings: Rhys, mentions of Rhys/Gwen, Jack/Ianto, past Owen/Gwen and one-sided Gwen/Jack
Summary: Does she really love him or is she simple with him in attempts to atone for her past actions?
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood
Author Notes: Written for the h_c bingo prompt: atonement and this is the next entry in the Beneath the Glass series. Unbeta’d so please forgive any mistakes.
Spoilers: S1 ‘Combat’ and S2 ‘Meat’ and ‘Adam’
It should have hurt much deeper then it did when Gwen seemed to forget who he was, but it didn’t. It just drove the point home that Rhys didn’t recognize Gwen anymore, she wasn’t the same woman he fell in love with all those years ago.
He wonders if she thinks he’s blind to the way she looks at that bastard Jack Harkness or how her eyes light up with love and lust as she speaks about him. The moment he met the handsome captain, Rhys hated him, he knew that he was no match for the dashing hero and Rhys knew that all Jack had to do was snap his fingers and Gwen would be running into his arms and bed without a backwards glance at Rhys.
But then Rhys saw how Jack looked at the younger Welshman Ianto, like he was the sun and moon that hung in the sky only for him. It was love, pure and simple love. And in that very moment Rhys knew that he had nothing to fear of Jack ever stealing Gwen from him, the captain only had eyes for Ianto.
That brought a new green monster out in Rhys, he was jealous of the love Jack had in Ianto and Ianto had in Jack. Rhys couldn’t help but wonder if Gwen noticed that Jack looks at Ianto the way he used to look at her or if she really even cares that he no longer does?
Rhys dropped his head into his hands as he looked at the half-finished vows in front of him. For weeks he’s been struggling to finish the vow that would pledge his life to Gwen’s and he couldn’t think of anything to write.
He would be lying to everyone and himself if he didn’t admit he was having doubts about marrying Gwen, doubts that have only grown since he met her co-workers, since he met Doctor Owen Harper.
The moment he met the snarky doctor, fragments of a conversation he didn’t remember having with Gwen, began haunting his dreams, where she admitted she had an affair with one of her co-workers.
“And I’m not stupid or blind to think I stood a chance against Jack Harkness. If it had been him that Gwen had cheated on me with that she would still be with me.” A snort escaped Rhys as a bitter smile appeared on his face. “No if Gwen had slept with Jack she would have dumped me the morning after her night in his bed.”
While Ianto was without a doubt a handsome man but the way Gwen barely paid him any attention and only seemed to remember him as an afterthought Rhys doubt it was him. ‘Probably not high enough on the food-chain for her to notice him,’ Rhys knew Gwen and she would never go after anyone she found beneath her and in her mind that was Ianto.
No it was the way a brief flash of guilt that flashed in Gwen’s eyes, as she introduced Owen to him, that was what finally gave her away. Now that Rhys had time to think and link the pieces he had no doubt that Gwen admitted an affair to him and somehow made him forget.
Groaning Rhys ran a hand through his hair. “Is Gwen marrying me because she loves me or she’s trying to atone for her affair with Owen and her longing of Jack?” Rhys asked out loud. Of course his empty office gave him no answer.
As his gaze drifted back down to the unfinished vows he found himself asking questions he honestly had no answer to, “Do I love Gwen enough to marry her? Am I more then her second choice and can I live with the fact I may not be?”
With the wedding growing all the more closer Rhys knew he was going to have to find the answers and soon before he ended up marrying a woman he may not be in love with anymore.
The End