Fic: The End Of Gwen
Title: The End Of Gwen
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Gwen, Rhys
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1555
Spoilers: Nada.
Warning: Definitely NOT for Gwen lovers.
Summary: Gwen wasn’t even at work when it happened…
Written For: Weekend Challenge Prompt: Cause of Death Generator at 1_million_words, using ‘Hit on the head by a falling drone’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: I could not resist; the idea was too tempting…
It had been a perfectly ordinary day, if any day with Torchwood could ever be described as ‘ordinary’, right up until the moment it wasn’t.
First there’d been the phone call from the police, reporting the tragic accident, or actually several phone calls, each one following the one before like a row of dominoes falling. The last one had come from the mayor, who was upset that once again Torchwood was scaring the tourists; that had been a little unfair since most of the team hadn’t actually done anything.
Then Jack and Ianto had driven out to the scene to see if there was anything they could do, which there really wasn’t, and now… Well, to be honest, they were at a bit of a loss. Dealing with an alien invasion would have been simple in comparison; at least they had prior experience with that kind of thing. The current situation, however…
“This is not good,” Ianto said, worry creasing his forehead. “Not good at all.”
“Tell me about it,” Jack agreed, hands shoved in his coat pockets as he surveyed the chaos surrounding them. The police had ushered them through the cordon, and now they were just trying to keep out of the way while the various emergency services did whatever they needed to do.
“I mean, how are we going to explain it to Rhys? He’ll be devastated!”
“We’ll just tell him the truth; it wasn’t our fault. There was nothing we could do; we weren’t even here! We wouldn’t be here now if the police hadn’t called to let us know, and they only did that because she’s one of the team. Besides, technically, it’s their responsibility to tell Rhys, not ours.”
Ianto didn’t seem to be listening. “He’ll blame us anyway. He’ll say we should’ve done a better job of protecting her.”
“And if she’d been at work, we would have,” Jack pointed out. “We’ve all saved her from her mistakes at one time or another.”
“Several times,” Ianto agreed.
“We’re not responsible for her when she isn’t working,” Jack continued, voice firm. “We can hardly be expected to follow her around on her afternoon off to keep her from doing something stupid. That’s not our job.”
“I know, it’s just… Well, I’m not sure Rhys will see it that way. You know what he’s like.”
Jack nodded. “A bit highly strung, tends to blow up over the slightest thing.”
“People don’t call him Rhys the Rant for nothing.”
“Do people really call him that?”
Ianto shrugged. “Gwen does.” He winced. “Well, she did…”
“Look,” Jack sighed. “If Rhys chooses to blame us, there’s nothing we can do about it. Well, I suppose we could Retcon him, but that might make things worse; they were together for a long time, and I’d rather not take away so many years of his memories. Plus, if we did that, we’d have to Retcon a bunch of other people as well.”
“Half of Cardiff, probably,” Ianto said gloomily.
“Exactly. It wouldn’t be very practical. The point remains that what happened to Gwen was her own fault. If she hadn’t overreacted and shot that drone, then it wouldn’t have fallen on her head.”
“Never fire at something directly overhead,” Ianto agreed. “I thought she knew that.”
“She should have, I told her often enough. You’d think she would’ve learned after she shot that seagull when it stole her pasty right out of her hand.”
“Well, to be fair, it wasn’t her head the seagull fell on, it was yours, and it didn’t cause any serious damage. You were fine once you could see straight again.”
“She laughed at me,” Jack muttered indignantly. “Said it was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen.”
“I daresay if the gull had fallen on her, she might have taken it more seriously.”
“I’m not so sure. I tried to explain that firing a gun in a crowd of people was irresponsible, even threatened to confiscate her weapon, but she just told me to lighten up.”
“She said that every time anyone tried to warn her about anything. If she’d listened to you and not been silly enough to shoot a drone, it wouldn’t have crashed on her head, and then she wouldn’t have been so dazed that she stumbled off the pavement into the path of that bus.”
“I might Retcon the bus driver,” Jack said thoughtfully. “And the passengers. It would be a kindness; no one should have to remember seeing a woman covered in blood stepping out in front of a moving vehicle. They’re probably all traumatised.”
“He did try to brake, according to the police who were the first on the scene, and he wasn’t speeding,” Ianto said. “It was just unfortunate, it all happened so fast there was no way he could’ve avoided her, not without swerving into the other lane and causing a pile-up.”
“He didn’t run over her though.” Jack tried to look on the bright side, or at least the slightly less dark side. “Just sort of flipped her, end over end. That’s what the witnesses said. Maybe I should Retcon them too. It can’t have been a pleasant sight.”
“Mm.” Ianto pulled a face. “Flipped her like a pancake…”
“Only not flattened,” Jack reminded his lover.
“No, not flattened, but that hardly mattered, considering she went straight over the side of the bridge.”
“Good point. You know, she might still have been okay, if not for the head wound. It’s not all that far to fall, and it’s just water down there. She knew how to swim.” Jack looked towards the guard railings and the smear of blood where one of Gwen’s hands had brushed against the cold metal, perhaps trying to grab it on her way over.
“What happened to her was just her bad luck,” Ianto agreed. “All that blood in the water… Really, how often do we get sharks in the Taff?”
“Beats me.” Jack looked thoughtful. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard mention of sharks being spotted before.”
“They weren’t spotted sharks, Jack, they were probably shortfin mako sharks. There’ve been quite a few sightings of those in the Bristol Channel. Maybe they swim into the river a lot but just keep to the deepest parts where they’re less likely to be noticed.”
“Whatever. Everyone who saw it happen said Gwen put up a good fight. Didn’t really stand a chance though, the sharks were in a frenzy. The river police had a job driving them off.”
“Not the sharks’ fault; they were only doing what comes naturally to them.”
Jack frowned at his lover. “I don’t think that’s gonna be much of a comfort to Rhys. His wife got eaten.”
“Not all of her, just a few bits. The police managed to retrieve most of her.”
“Still, I think I’d better be the one to identify the remains,” Jack said. “Let Rhys remember her how she was the last time he saw her.”
“Probably wise. The funeral will have to be closed casket anyway.” Ianto huffed a breath. “Well, now we’re one team member down, I was thinking, this might be a good time to see if Andy’s still interested in joining Torchwood.”
“Might as well ask. Let’s just finish up here, then we can call him.”
“What about Rhys?”
“Oh, I don’t think he’d be interested in joining the team, at least not right now. We should probably wait until after the funeral. Maybe give him a while to come to terms with his loss.”
“No, I meant… should we call him, tell him what happened? It might be better for him to hear, coming from us. I know we’re not really friends of his, but we did know Gwen.”
Jack shook his head. “Leave that to the police; they’re used to informing the families of the deceased. Like I said, it’s not really our job.”
“I suppose you’re right, but I think I’ll check up on him later, see if there’s anything we can do. Hopefully by then the police will have told him it was nothing to do with us, and we won’t get blamed.”
“We can but hope. I really don’t want to have to fight Rhys, it wouldn’t feel right, hitting the man when he’s already down.”
“What should we put as cause of death? You know, for our records.”
“The sergeant I spoke with earlier said they were calling it death by misadventure.”
“That’s good. It covers everything very neatly, simplifies the paperwork.” Ianto smiled.
“And Gwen always did enjoy the adventure,” Jack pointed out as he and Ianto made their way towards the small cluster of police vehicles.
“Mm, although this was one adventure she might’ve been better off missing out on.”
“Yeah.” Jack sighed heavily. “Poor Gwen. What a way to go.”
“Not the most heroic end,” Ianto agreed. ‘I wonder if Torchwood should offer to pay for the headstone,’ he thought, as Jack strode on ahead to have a final few words with the Detective Inspector in charge of the scene. Normally, the final resting place of all Torchwood agents was in one of the morgue drawers, but since Gwen hadn’t died in the line of duty, Jack had already agreed to make an exception, if only for her husband’s sake. ‘RIP, Gwen Cooper-Williams. Rest in… pieces.’
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Gwen, Rhys
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1555
Spoilers: Nada.
Warning: Definitely NOT for Gwen lovers.
Summary: Gwen wasn’t even at work when it happened…
Written For: Weekend Challenge Prompt: Cause of Death Generator at 1_million_words, using ‘Hit on the head by a falling drone’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: I could not resist; the idea was too tempting…
It had been a perfectly ordinary day, if any day with Torchwood could ever be described as ‘ordinary’, right up until the moment it wasn’t.
First there’d been the phone call from the police, reporting the tragic accident, or actually several phone calls, each one following the one before like a row of dominoes falling. The last one had come from the mayor, who was upset that once again Torchwood was scaring the tourists; that had been a little unfair since most of the team hadn’t actually done anything.
Then Jack and Ianto had driven out to the scene to see if there was anything they could do, which there really wasn’t, and now… Well, to be honest, they were at a bit of a loss. Dealing with an alien invasion would have been simple in comparison; at least they had prior experience with that kind of thing. The current situation, however…
“This is not good,” Ianto said, worry creasing his forehead. “Not good at all.”
“Tell me about it,” Jack agreed, hands shoved in his coat pockets as he surveyed the chaos surrounding them. The police had ushered them through the cordon, and now they were just trying to keep out of the way while the various emergency services did whatever they needed to do.
“I mean, how are we going to explain it to Rhys? He’ll be devastated!”
“We’ll just tell him the truth; it wasn’t our fault. There was nothing we could do; we weren’t even here! We wouldn’t be here now if the police hadn’t called to let us know, and they only did that because she’s one of the team. Besides, technically, it’s their responsibility to tell Rhys, not ours.”
Ianto didn’t seem to be listening. “He’ll blame us anyway. He’ll say we should’ve done a better job of protecting her.”
“And if she’d been at work, we would have,” Jack pointed out. “We’ve all saved her from her mistakes at one time or another.”
“Several times,” Ianto agreed.
“We’re not responsible for her when she isn’t working,” Jack continued, voice firm. “We can hardly be expected to follow her around on her afternoon off to keep her from doing something stupid. That’s not our job.”
“I know, it’s just… Well, I’m not sure Rhys will see it that way. You know what he’s like.”
Jack nodded. “A bit highly strung, tends to blow up over the slightest thing.”
“People don’t call him Rhys the Rant for nothing.”
“Do people really call him that?”
Ianto shrugged. “Gwen does.” He winced. “Well, she did…”
“Look,” Jack sighed. “If Rhys chooses to blame us, there’s nothing we can do about it. Well, I suppose we could Retcon him, but that might make things worse; they were together for a long time, and I’d rather not take away so many years of his memories. Plus, if we did that, we’d have to Retcon a bunch of other people as well.”
“Half of Cardiff, probably,” Ianto said gloomily.
“Exactly. It wouldn’t be very practical. The point remains that what happened to Gwen was her own fault. If she hadn’t overreacted and shot that drone, then it wouldn’t have fallen on her head.”
“Never fire at something directly overhead,” Ianto agreed. “I thought she knew that.”
“She should have, I told her often enough. You’d think she would’ve learned after she shot that seagull when it stole her pasty right out of her hand.”
“Well, to be fair, it wasn’t her head the seagull fell on, it was yours, and it didn’t cause any serious damage. You were fine once you could see straight again.”
“She laughed at me,” Jack muttered indignantly. “Said it was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen.”
“I daresay if the gull had fallen on her, she might have taken it more seriously.”
“I’m not so sure. I tried to explain that firing a gun in a crowd of people was irresponsible, even threatened to confiscate her weapon, but she just told me to lighten up.”
“She said that every time anyone tried to warn her about anything. If she’d listened to you and not been silly enough to shoot a drone, it wouldn’t have crashed on her head, and then she wouldn’t have been so dazed that she stumbled off the pavement into the path of that bus.”
“I might Retcon the bus driver,” Jack said thoughtfully. “And the passengers. It would be a kindness; no one should have to remember seeing a woman covered in blood stepping out in front of a moving vehicle. They’re probably all traumatised.”
“He did try to brake, according to the police who were the first on the scene, and he wasn’t speeding,” Ianto said. “It was just unfortunate, it all happened so fast there was no way he could’ve avoided her, not without swerving into the other lane and causing a pile-up.”
“He didn’t run over her though.” Jack tried to look on the bright side, or at least the slightly less dark side. “Just sort of flipped her, end over end. That’s what the witnesses said. Maybe I should Retcon them too. It can’t have been a pleasant sight.”
“Mm.” Ianto pulled a face. “Flipped her like a pancake…”
“Only not flattened,” Jack reminded his lover.
“No, not flattened, but that hardly mattered, considering she went straight over the side of the bridge.”
“Good point. You know, she might still have been okay, if not for the head wound. It’s not all that far to fall, and it’s just water down there. She knew how to swim.” Jack looked towards the guard railings and the smear of blood where one of Gwen’s hands had brushed against the cold metal, perhaps trying to grab it on her way over.
“What happened to her was just her bad luck,” Ianto agreed. “All that blood in the water… Really, how often do we get sharks in the Taff?”
“Beats me.” Jack looked thoughtful. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard mention of sharks being spotted before.”
“They weren’t spotted sharks, Jack, they were probably shortfin mako sharks. There’ve been quite a few sightings of those in the Bristol Channel. Maybe they swim into the river a lot but just keep to the deepest parts where they’re less likely to be noticed.”
“Whatever. Everyone who saw it happen said Gwen put up a good fight. Didn’t really stand a chance though, the sharks were in a frenzy. The river police had a job driving them off.”
“Not the sharks’ fault; they were only doing what comes naturally to them.”
Jack frowned at his lover. “I don’t think that’s gonna be much of a comfort to Rhys. His wife got eaten.”
“Not all of her, just a few bits. The police managed to retrieve most of her.”
“Still, I think I’d better be the one to identify the remains,” Jack said. “Let Rhys remember her how she was the last time he saw her.”
“Probably wise. The funeral will have to be closed casket anyway.” Ianto huffed a breath. “Well, now we’re one team member down, I was thinking, this might be a good time to see if Andy’s still interested in joining Torchwood.”
“Might as well ask. Let’s just finish up here, then we can call him.”
“What about Rhys?”
“Oh, I don’t think he’d be interested in joining the team, at least not right now. We should probably wait until after the funeral. Maybe give him a while to come to terms with his loss.”
“No, I meant… should we call him, tell him what happened? It might be better for him to hear, coming from us. I know we’re not really friends of his, but we did know Gwen.”
Jack shook his head. “Leave that to the police; they’re used to informing the families of the deceased. Like I said, it’s not really our job.”
“I suppose you’re right, but I think I’ll check up on him later, see if there’s anything we can do. Hopefully by then the police will have told him it was nothing to do with us, and we won’t get blamed.”
“We can but hope. I really don’t want to have to fight Rhys, it wouldn’t feel right, hitting the man when he’s already down.”
“What should we put as cause of death? You know, for our records.”
“The sergeant I spoke with earlier said they were calling it death by misadventure.”
“That’s good. It covers everything very neatly, simplifies the paperwork.” Ianto smiled.
“And Gwen always did enjoy the adventure,” Jack pointed out as he and Ianto made their way towards the small cluster of police vehicles.
“Mm, although this was one adventure she might’ve been better off missing out on.”
“Yeah.” Jack sighed heavily. “Poor Gwen. What a way to go.”
“Not the most heroic end,” Ianto agreed. ‘I wonder if Torchwood should offer to pay for the headstone,’ he thought, as Jack strode on ahead to have a final few words with the Detective Inspector in charge of the scene. Normally, the final resting place of all Torchwood agents was in one of the morgue drawers, but since Gwen hadn’t died in the line of duty, Jack had already agreed to make an exception, if only for her husband’s sake. ‘RIP, Gwen Cooper-Williams. Rest in… pieces.’
The End