More fanfic: Trapped II
Title: Trapped II
Characters: Gwen, Owen, Jack, Tosh, Ianto, Rhys, Dav
Summary: Set a short time after chapter 1. Gwen and Owen are up to their old tricks but a night out for the Torchwood team brings an unsettling encounter for Gwen.
Rating: PG-15 for implications of slash and language.
Trapped II
It had seemed like a good idea at the time when Captain Jack suggested it: a night out on the town. They’d had a long week, ten days really, tracking down a crashed-landed alien craft and its ‘in hiding’ aliens who had disappeared into the city.
Gwen hadn’t seen Rhys in three days, the last time she was home, and really all she wanted was her bed, but it hadn’t taken Jack long to convince her that a few drinks, some dancing, letting her hair down, would be a good way to unwind.
Of course Owen had agreed with Jack. From sitting slumped at the boardroom table he switched to enthusiastic and ready to go in seconds. Nervous energy, Tosh decided. They were all running on adrenaline. What surprised her most was that she agreed to the plan without any persuasion. A little unwinding sounded good.
Ianto had been the hardest to convince, his the only voice of reason among them. “How much sleep have any of you had in the last three days?” he asked.
“Come on Ianto, you’ll have fun,” Jack wasn’t taking no for an answer as he shoved him by the shoulders towards the door.
And so it was that an hour later all five of them were propping up a bar at one of Cardiff’s trendiest nightclubs. Of course the fact that it was Tuesday meant they didn’t have to fight for space at the bar.
Tosh and Gwen were already giggly. Owen was bending a slightly revolted Ianto’s ear about some rare and horrific African disease he’d come across once. Jack just sat back and watched all of them with something like pride. He grinned as he sipped his glass of water; his only nod to the party atmosphere a slice of lime and ice in his glass.
He passed his Torchwood credit card across to the barmaid as he ordered another round of drinks.
Ianto sent a pleading look at Jack, ‘rescue me from this conversation,’ but before Jack could stop laughing and do anything to stop Owen’s tale of bodily fluids and their explosive powers the music changed to something fast and latin and in a blur Owen was gone from in front of them
“I love this one,” Gwen shouted over the music as she dragged the stumbling Owen onto the dance floor. But when he realised what she was doing he didn’t object, rather he grinned and caught her hands, spinning her around, letting her dance around him, laughing with her as she wiggled her hips to the music, bumping him, trying to get him to move around more.
“Little Miss I-think-I-should-get-an-early-night seems to have changed her mind,” Jack observed with a grin, finally moving to the stool beside Ianto.
“About a lot of things,” Ianto replied. “You noticed that too huh?” Jack turned his attention back to the dance floor. They both watched Gwen and Owen for a minute, not saying anything but both thinking about the strife between them the last time their ‘relationship’ had all gone wrong.
“Oh cheer up, you two, it might never happen,” an increasingly giggly Tosh had come back from the ladies room. “Ooo, look at them. I never knew Gwen could do that…” Tosh’s eyes widened as Owen swung Gwen around and dramatically dipped her to the floor, almost dropping her they were laughing so hard.
Jack hopped off his stool and held out his hand to Tosh.. “Want to give them a run for their money?” She nodded eagerly and almost ran to the dance floor, dragging Jack along behind her.
Ianto was left laughing to himself at the bar and Jack couldn’t resist turning back and blowing him a kiss.
“Keeping an eye on us boss?” Jack heard Owen’s remark behind him and he spun Tosh just a little too fast, judging by the way she wobbled. “Woah, I gotcha,” Jack steadied Tosh, who was laughing. “I haven’t had so much fun in ages, Jack, we should go dancing more often.”
It was true, Jack had to agree. He hadn’t seen his whole team so relaxed and having so much fun in a long time. Ianto had even consented and let Gwen take off his tie and open the top button of his shirt. Jack realised, as he let Tosh twirl again, that he usually only saw Ianto like that first thing in the morning, and it was very sexy, here, in the dim light, with Ianto sitting on a bar stool, bottle of beer in his hand.
Absentmindedly Jack moved to the music with Tosh, but his mind was already thinking ahead to getting Ianto to himself, alone, so he could kiss that triangle of pale skin at Ianto’s neck that has caught his attention. Unconsciously Jack licked his lips but Ianto noticed and held Jack’s eyes as he carefully put his beer bottle down on the bar and started to walk towards the dark back of the club, where the restrooms were located.
Jack almost couldn’t believe what Ianto’s eyes were suggesting to him. Not that he didn’t want to, but he never expected Ianto to be the one to lead him to the men’s room of a nightclub for a quickie!
He was just about to make his excuse to Tosh when Jack’s heightened senses told him something was wrong. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the shape of a burly figure quickly pushing his way across the dance floor to his team.
After that things happened with split second timing. Jack turned just in time to see one of the men, who seemed familiar, reach out towards Gwen.
Jack opened his mouth to shout a warning when at the same time Owen spun Gwen away from him and she slammed into the barrel-like chest of the oncoming man, and froze.
“Oi, mate, watch it.”
“Gwen?”
“Rhys!”
Owen, Rhys and Gwen all shouted at once.
Owen looked at Gwen and then at the new arrival. “You alright, yeah?” he asked her.
“What are you doing here love, I thought you were working?” it was Rhys, looking both confused and a little bit annoyed.
Jack and Tosh exchanged a look of understanding, but said nothing.
Gwen felt her heart beat zip into overdrive. Panic. Rhys. What was he doing here? Oh my god, would he know, would he remember what she’d confessed all those months ago, what was he thinking. He had obviously seen her with Owen. Her mind was racing. She desperately scrambled in her mind for something safe to say.
Jack saved her.
“Captain Jack Harkness,” he held out his hand to Rhys, “we met before. I’m Gwen’s boss. You can blame me, I insisted on taking the office out tonight for finishing a big project we were working on.” He flashed Rhys his charm smile and Gwen mentally thanked god for Jack’s talent at lying.
Rhys shook Jack’s hand and looked around at the other people for the first time. His eyes going from Jack to Tosh and then resting on Owen for a second before looking back to Gwen.
She smiled what she hoped was a carefree and not a guilty smile. “This is Toshiko,” she pointed, “you know Jack and this is Owen.”
Rhys seemed to relax a bit and shook their hands, although quickly. “So I finally get to meet your workmates then?” he said to Gwen, “about bloody time,” and he laughed.
Gwen relaxed a little. “So what are you doing here Rhys?” she really wanted to know.
“Ah Dav got dumped, he needed a shoulder to cry on,” he nodded his head towards the bar on the far side of the club where his friend was chatting up the barmaid and laughing loudly.
“He looks upset,” Owen muttered dryly.
“Why don’t you join us?” it was Jack again, and all four faces turned to look at him, Rhys smiling, the other three varying stages of surprised and stunned.
“I’ll go and get Dav love,” Rhys said to Gwen, “He won’t believe I met you here.” He gave her a quick kiss before he walked off to get his friend.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Owen turned on Jack.
“Owen he was being polite,” Tosh was a lot less giggly now. All of them had turned more serious.
Jack ignored Owen who stormed off back to the stools they’d been sitting on earlier.
“Are you alright?” Jack’s voice was gentle to Gwen.
She swallowed and looked him hard in the eye as she obviously forced a smile onto her face. “Yes, fine, lovely. Who’d have thought I’d meet Rhys tonight. It’s great isn’t it” Rhys and Dav! I have someone to walk me home now.” She was babbling and she knew it. Jack knew it too and recognised she was upset. But there was nothing he could do. Officially he knew nothing about Owen and Gwen’s renewed affair. If the rest of the night was a disaster there was always retcon.
As they reached the stools Owen grunted something about going outside for a smoke, and left, Gwen looking after him.
“Grumpy bloke that,” Rhys said, waving to get the barmaid’s attention, “now who’s for another beer, this round’s on me.”
Ten minutes into the following conversation Gwen was sure Jack would retcon Dav before the night was out. Rhys had obviously bitched about Gwen’s prolonged absences at work and the drunk Dav took it upon himself to get to the bottom of his best mate’s worries and find out all there was about Gwen’s job.
She was surprised when Jack started to tell him, until she remembered her first conversation with him and how that had ended in memory loss. Rhys wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone but Gwen and an amused Ianto. He was drunk too and he kept telling her he missed her when she was at work, then just when she thought he’d cry into his beer he turned to Ianto and started a conversation about how to make a good cup of tea.
Gwen took the chance and stood up, saying she was off to the ladies. She needed a break from the surreal atmosphere. She’d worked for Torchwood for almost a year but this was the first time her real life and Torchwood had collided like this. And she didn’t like it.
Closing the door of the cubicle Gwen rested back against it, letting the coolness of the door calm her down. This was a nightmare, she thought to herself. Owen and Rhys in the same place, at the same time. When they belonged to separate worlds.
She tried taking a few deep breaths but the less than fresh air wasn’t helping.
Leaving the cubicle she went to the sink and gazed into the mirror over it. Did she look guilty? What did guilty look like? She tried to smile at her reflection, but it looked more like a grimace. Rhys didn’t seem to have noticed anything out of sorts. Had there been anything to notice? She didn’t know. They were only dancing, like Tosh and Jack had been.
Sighing she gave up, washed her hands and was walking out the door when she felt a hand push her back into the ladies room.
“Owen, what are you doing?” she demanded.
“This,” he grabbed her into his arms and kissed her violently.
Gwen tried to push him away but couldn’t stop herself kissing him back. It had been what she was almost about to do just before Rhys had appeared, she remembered.
Then just as suddenly as he had grabbed her, Owen stopped and pulled away. “I don’t like him,” he jabbed a finger in the general direction of the dance floor outside, and marched over and back the small room.
“I didn’t know he would be here,” Gwen knew it sounded weak, but it was true.
Then she recognised something in Owen. He’d come after her, an alpha male marking his territory, but had had just enough sense not to do it in front of her boyfriend and cause a scene. Not that the ladies toilet was the most clever place either, she thought.
“Owen we have to get out of here, if someone comes in…”
“I don’t care if someone comes in,” he cut her off loudly, making her wince.
“Look, I’m sorry for shouting,” Owen stopped marching, “ but I’m angry, yeah?”
“Fuck this is frustrating,” Owen slammed his fist into the hand dryer.
He stood in front of Gwen. “Do you know what I was going to say, before?” Gwen shook her head. “Get your coat love, you’ve pulled.” His voice was bitter.
Gwen couldn’t stop herself laughing and it seemed to relieve some of the tension in the room.
Then Owen was kissing her again, his hands were in her hair, forcing their lips together.
Then he stopped suddenly and without a word flung the door open and marched out, almost knocking over a surprised Tosh.
“I mixed up the doors,” he shouted over his shoulder as he went in the direction of the loud music.
Tosh closed the door a lot more gently than it was opened and regarded Gwen with a look that tried to assess how upset she was.
“Jack was worried,” she said in her careful tone.
“I’m fine,” Gwen tried to smile again. “I’m fine Tosh, don’t worry. Come on, I need a drink,” and she followed Owen back to the group, Tosh with her.
When she got back to the group she saw Owen had sat down as far from Rhys as he could. Jack was ordering drinks and motioned for her to join him. She sighed, thinking he was going to say something about her being gone for so long, but he just handed her a pint of beer and said: “Make sure you give this one to Dav.” She understood.
It wasn’t long before Rhys’s friend started showing the signs of the drug. At least the signs the Torchwood crew recognised. But Rhys didn’t know about retcon and to him his friend had had too much to drink.
“Come on Dav, better get you home mate,” Rhys helped his friend out of his seat. Gwen was reluctantly reaching for her jacket, avoiding Owen’s eyes, when Rhys noticed she was planning to leave with him. “No love, you stay here with your friends. I’m going to have to take Dav home anyway, and I’ll probably crash on his couch.”
There was a moment of hesitation when Gwen new she should protest more, insistent on going with them, but she let the moment pass. Instead she walked him to the door and gave him a kiss goodbye as Dav fell into a taxi.
She turned to go back inside, but for the second time that night Owen was blocking her way. He’d obviously been watching from the shadowy doorway as she stood with Rhys, flagging the taxi. His jacket was on and he had Gwen’s dangling from his hand.
“Owen?” Gwen asked, as she walked towards him, not sure what he had planned. Without answering her he caught her arm and pulled her towards the side of the building.
“Owen, stop it, what are you doing?” she demanded, struggling to free her arm.
He didn’t say anything until he had lead her a few metres down the dark lane beside the night club and they were sheltered from the busy street by a huge, metal, industrial rubbish bin.
“Owen, what are you doing,” Gwen wrenched her arm free. She was really annoyed now. But she could see Owen wasn’t calm either.
He spoke to her through clenched teeth. “I don’t like him. I don’t like seeing you with him.”
“For god’s sake Owen, he is my boyfriend. I live with him. You know that. You and me….we’re…. well you’re not my boyfriend, are you?”
He was standing very close to her and Gwen realised she was almost backed up to the wall. “No I’m not. I’m just the one who makes you feel alive. The one you come screaming for,” his voice was close to her ear now, “the one you want to be with.”
“Not like this Owen,” Gwen shot back. “Not is some dirty alley, like a cheap tart.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
“No.”
“Why not, for fuck’s sake, before loverboy arrived you know you were going to leave with me. Feeling guilty?” Owen sneered.
She was. Her two neatly ordered worlds had collided in front of her this evening. Rhys and Owen were never meant to meet. Especially not with her there to see them together.
“Great, you are,” Owen read her expression. He turned away from her and kicked at the rubbish on the ground.
There was an awkward silence between them.
Gwen was trying to think clearly but her mind was racing, couldn’t think straight. It wasn’t meant to be like this. Her head hurt from trying to decide what to do. Then she remembered... Rhys was staying at Dav’s.
Raising her eyes Gwen realised Owen was watching her carefully. This calm, intense Owen worried her more than the loud and angry Owen. She crossed the alley to where he was now leaning back against the far wall, in the shadows.
“I’m going home Owen. Alone.” She spoke softly, trying not to sound as confused and upset as she felt.
His face hardened. “You do what you want,” he pushed away from the wall and began to storm off.
“Owen,” she called after him. He ignored her. “Owen,” she shouted as he got to the street and just waved her away over his shoulder, not turning back.
Gwen felt crushed as Owen disappeared around the corner. She saw him again as she joined the taxi queue outside the nightclub. It was still early; it didn’t take more than a minute before she was in a car and moving towards her flat.
AS the car moved down the road they passed a figure walking quickly, hands jammed into his jacket pocket, hunched over against the cold breeze. Owen.
Gwen turned in her seat to watch him out the back window. Their eyes met and he stared at her until her car turned the next corner.
She held her composure as she was sped through the streets, while she paid the taxi driver, made it up the stairs to her front door. But as the key clicked in the lock the first miserable tears slid down her face. She stumbled through the dark flat and into her bedroom, dumping everything, bag, clothes, shoes, on the ground and throwing herself into the cold bed.
The confusion and hurt felt like it was swamping her as she hugged her pillow to her face and let the tears overcome her.
Ends
Characters: Gwen, Owen, Jack, Tosh, Ianto, Rhys, Dav
Summary: Set a short time after chapter 1. Gwen and Owen are up to their old tricks but a night out for the Torchwood team brings an unsettling encounter for Gwen.
Rating: PG-15 for implications of slash and language.
Trapped II
It had seemed like a good idea at the time when Captain Jack suggested it: a night out on the town. They’d had a long week, ten days really, tracking down a crashed-landed alien craft and its ‘in hiding’ aliens who had disappeared into the city.
Gwen hadn’t seen Rhys in three days, the last time she was home, and really all she wanted was her bed, but it hadn’t taken Jack long to convince her that a few drinks, some dancing, letting her hair down, would be a good way to unwind.
Of course Owen had agreed with Jack. From sitting slumped at the boardroom table he switched to enthusiastic and ready to go in seconds. Nervous energy, Tosh decided. They were all running on adrenaline. What surprised her most was that she agreed to the plan without any persuasion. A little unwinding sounded good.
Ianto had been the hardest to convince, his the only voice of reason among them. “How much sleep have any of you had in the last three days?” he asked.
“Come on Ianto, you’ll have fun,” Jack wasn’t taking no for an answer as he shoved him by the shoulders towards the door.
And so it was that an hour later all five of them were propping up a bar at one of Cardiff’s trendiest nightclubs. Of course the fact that it was Tuesday meant they didn’t have to fight for space at the bar.
Tosh and Gwen were already giggly. Owen was bending a slightly revolted Ianto’s ear about some rare and horrific African disease he’d come across once. Jack just sat back and watched all of them with something like pride. He grinned as he sipped his glass of water; his only nod to the party atmosphere a slice of lime and ice in his glass.
He passed his Torchwood credit card across to the barmaid as he ordered another round of drinks.
Ianto sent a pleading look at Jack, ‘rescue me from this conversation,’ but before Jack could stop laughing and do anything to stop Owen’s tale of bodily fluids and their explosive powers the music changed to something fast and latin and in a blur Owen was gone from in front of them
“I love this one,” Gwen shouted over the music as she dragged the stumbling Owen onto the dance floor. But when he realised what she was doing he didn’t object, rather he grinned and caught her hands, spinning her around, letting her dance around him, laughing with her as she wiggled her hips to the music, bumping him, trying to get him to move around more.
“Little Miss I-think-I-should-get-an-early-night seems to have changed her mind,” Jack observed with a grin, finally moving to the stool beside Ianto.
“About a lot of things,” Ianto replied. “You noticed that too huh?” Jack turned his attention back to the dance floor. They both watched Gwen and Owen for a minute, not saying anything but both thinking about the strife between them the last time their ‘relationship’ had all gone wrong.
“Oh cheer up, you two, it might never happen,” an increasingly giggly Tosh had come back from the ladies room. “Ooo, look at them. I never knew Gwen could do that…” Tosh’s eyes widened as Owen swung Gwen around and dramatically dipped her to the floor, almost dropping her they were laughing so hard.
Jack hopped off his stool and held out his hand to Tosh.. “Want to give them a run for their money?” She nodded eagerly and almost ran to the dance floor, dragging Jack along behind her.
Ianto was left laughing to himself at the bar and Jack couldn’t resist turning back and blowing him a kiss.
“Keeping an eye on us boss?” Jack heard Owen’s remark behind him and he spun Tosh just a little too fast, judging by the way she wobbled. “Woah, I gotcha,” Jack steadied Tosh, who was laughing. “I haven’t had so much fun in ages, Jack, we should go dancing more often.”
It was true, Jack had to agree. He hadn’t seen his whole team so relaxed and having so much fun in a long time. Ianto had even consented and let Gwen take off his tie and open the top button of his shirt. Jack realised, as he let Tosh twirl again, that he usually only saw Ianto like that first thing in the morning, and it was very sexy, here, in the dim light, with Ianto sitting on a bar stool, bottle of beer in his hand.
Absentmindedly Jack moved to the music with Tosh, but his mind was already thinking ahead to getting Ianto to himself, alone, so he could kiss that triangle of pale skin at Ianto’s neck that has caught his attention. Unconsciously Jack licked his lips but Ianto noticed and held Jack’s eyes as he carefully put his beer bottle down on the bar and started to walk towards the dark back of the club, where the restrooms were located.
Jack almost couldn’t believe what Ianto’s eyes were suggesting to him. Not that he didn’t want to, but he never expected Ianto to be the one to lead him to the men’s room of a nightclub for a quickie!
He was just about to make his excuse to Tosh when Jack’s heightened senses told him something was wrong. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the shape of a burly figure quickly pushing his way across the dance floor to his team.
After that things happened with split second timing. Jack turned just in time to see one of the men, who seemed familiar, reach out towards Gwen.
Jack opened his mouth to shout a warning when at the same time Owen spun Gwen away from him and she slammed into the barrel-like chest of the oncoming man, and froze.
“Oi, mate, watch it.”
“Gwen?”
“Rhys!”
Owen, Rhys and Gwen all shouted at once.
Owen looked at Gwen and then at the new arrival. “You alright, yeah?” he asked her.
“What are you doing here love, I thought you were working?” it was Rhys, looking both confused and a little bit annoyed.
Jack and Tosh exchanged a look of understanding, but said nothing.
Gwen felt her heart beat zip into overdrive. Panic. Rhys. What was he doing here? Oh my god, would he know, would he remember what she’d confessed all those months ago, what was he thinking. He had obviously seen her with Owen. Her mind was racing. She desperately scrambled in her mind for something safe to say.
Jack saved her.
“Captain Jack Harkness,” he held out his hand to Rhys, “we met before. I’m Gwen’s boss. You can blame me, I insisted on taking the office out tonight for finishing a big project we were working on.” He flashed Rhys his charm smile and Gwen mentally thanked god for Jack’s talent at lying.
Rhys shook Jack’s hand and looked around at the other people for the first time. His eyes going from Jack to Tosh and then resting on Owen for a second before looking back to Gwen.
She smiled what she hoped was a carefree and not a guilty smile. “This is Toshiko,” she pointed, “you know Jack and this is Owen.”
Rhys seemed to relax a bit and shook their hands, although quickly. “So I finally get to meet your workmates then?” he said to Gwen, “about bloody time,” and he laughed.
Gwen relaxed a little. “So what are you doing here Rhys?” she really wanted to know.
“Ah Dav got dumped, he needed a shoulder to cry on,” he nodded his head towards the bar on the far side of the club where his friend was chatting up the barmaid and laughing loudly.
“He looks upset,” Owen muttered dryly.
“Why don’t you join us?” it was Jack again, and all four faces turned to look at him, Rhys smiling, the other three varying stages of surprised and stunned.
“I’ll go and get Dav love,” Rhys said to Gwen, “He won’t believe I met you here.” He gave her a quick kiss before he walked off to get his friend.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Owen turned on Jack.
“Owen he was being polite,” Tosh was a lot less giggly now. All of them had turned more serious.
Jack ignored Owen who stormed off back to the stools they’d been sitting on earlier.
“Are you alright?” Jack’s voice was gentle to Gwen.
She swallowed and looked him hard in the eye as she obviously forced a smile onto her face. “Yes, fine, lovely. Who’d have thought I’d meet Rhys tonight. It’s great isn’t it” Rhys and Dav! I have someone to walk me home now.” She was babbling and she knew it. Jack knew it too and recognised she was upset. But there was nothing he could do. Officially he knew nothing about Owen and Gwen’s renewed affair. If the rest of the night was a disaster there was always retcon.
As they reached the stools Owen grunted something about going outside for a smoke, and left, Gwen looking after him.
“Grumpy bloke that,” Rhys said, waving to get the barmaid’s attention, “now who’s for another beer, this round’s on me.”
Ten minutes into the following conversation Gwen was sure Jack would retcon Dav before the night was out. Rhys had obviously bitched about Gwen’s prolonged absences at work and the drunk Dav took it upon himself to get to the bottom of his best mate’s worries and find out all there was about Gwen’s job.
She was surprised when Jack started to tell him, until she remembered her first conversation with him and how that had ended in memory loss. Rhys wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone but Gwen and an amused Ianto. He was drunk too and he kept telling her he missed her when she was at work, then just when she thought he’d cry into his beer he turned to Ianto and started a conversation about how to make a good cup of tea.
Gwen took the chance and stood up, saying she was off to the ladies. She needed a break from the surreal atmosphere. She’d worked for Torchwood for almost a year but this was the first time her real life and Torchwood had collided like this. And she didn’t like it.
Closing the door of the cubicle Gwen rested back against it, letting the coolness of the door calm her down. This was a nightmare, she thought to herself. Owen and Rhys in the same place, at the same time. When they belonged to separate worlds.
She tried taking a few deep breaths but the less than fresh air wasn’t helping.
Leaving the cubicle she went to the sink and gazed into the mirror over it. Did she look guilty? What did guilty look like? She tried to smile at her reflection, but it looked more like a grimace. Rhys didn’t seem to have noticed anything out of sorts. Had there been anything to notice? She didn’t know. They were only dancing, like Tosh and Jack had been.
Sighing she gave up, washed her hands and was walking out the door when she felt a hand push her back into the ladies room.
“Owen, what are you doing?” she demanded.
“This,” he grabbed her into his arms and kissed her violently.
Gwen tried to push him away but couldn’t stop herself kissing him back. It had been what she was almost about to do just before Rhys had appeared, she remembered.
Then just as suddenly as he had grabbed her, Owen stopped and pulled away. “I don’t like him,” he jabbed a finger in the general direction of the dance floor outside, and marched over and back the small room.
“I didn’t know he would be here,” Gwen knew it sounded weak, but it was true.
Then she recognised something in Owen. He’d come after her, an alpha male marking his territory, but had had just enough sense not to do it in front of her boyfriend and cause a scene. Not that the ladies toilet was the most clever place either, she thought.
“Owen we have to get out of here, if someone comes in…”
“I don’t care if someone comes in,” he cut her off loudly, making her wince.
“Look, I’m sorry for shouting,” Owen stopped marching, “ but I’m angry, yeah?”
“Fuck this is frustrating,” Owen slammed his fist into the hand dryer.
He stood in front of Gwen. “Do you know what I was going to say, before?” Gwen shook her head. “Get your coat love, you’ve pulled.” His voice was bitter.
Gwen couldn’t stop herself laughing and it seemed to relieve some of the tension in the room.
Then Owen was kissing her again, his hands were in her hair, forcing their lips together.
Then he stopped suddenly and without a word flung the door open and marched out, almost knocking over a surprised Tosh.
“I mixed up the doors,” he shouted over his shoulder as he went in the direction of the loud music.
Tosh closed the door a lot more gently than it was opened and regarded Gwen with a look that tried to assess how upset she was.
“Jack was worried,” she said in her careful tone.
“I’m fine,” Gwen tried to smile again. “I’m fine Tosh, don’t worry. Come on, I need a drink,” and she followed Owen back to the group, Tosh with her.
When she got back to the group she saw Owen had sat down as far from Rhys as he could. Jack was ordering drinks and motioned for her to join him. She sighed, thinking he was going to say something about her being gone for so long, but he just handed her a pint of beer and said: “Make sure you give this one to Dav.” She understood.
It wasn’t long before Rhys’s friend started showing the signs of the drug. At least the signs the Torchwood crew recognised. But Rhys didn’t know about retcon and to him his friend had had too much to drink.
“Come on Dav, better get you home mate,” Rhys helped his friend out of his seat. Gwen was reluctantly reaching for her jacket, avoiding Owen’s eyes, when Rhys noticed she was planning to leave with him. “No love, you stay here with your friends. I’m going to have to take Dav home anyway, and I’ll probably crash on his couch.”
There was a moment of hesitation when Gwen new she should protest more, insistent on going with them, but she let the moment pass. Instead she walked him to the door and gave him a kiss goodbye as Dav fell into a taxi.
She turned to go back inside, but for the second time that night Owen was blocking her way. He’d obviously been watching from the shadowy doorway as she stood with Rhys, flagging the taxi. His jacket was on and he had Gwen’s dangling from his hand.
“Owen?” Gwen asked, as she walked towards him, not sure what he had planned. Without answering her he caught her arm and pulled her towards the side of the building.
“Owen, stop it, what are you doing?” she demanded, struggling to free her arm.
He didn’t say anything until he had lead her a few metres down the dark lane beside the night club and they were sheltered from the busy street by a huge, metal, industrial rubbish bin.
“Owen, what are you doing,” Gwen wrenched her arm free. She was really annoyed now. But she could see Owen wasn’t calm either.
He spoke to her through clenched teeth. “I don’t like him. I don’t like seeing you with him.”
“For god’s sake Owen, he is my boyfriend. I live with him. You know that. You and me….we’re…. well you’re not my boyfriend, are you?”
He was standing very close to her and Gwen realised she was almost backed up to the wall. “No I’m not. I’m just the one who makes you feel alive. The one you come screaming for,” his voice was close to her ear now, “the one you want to be with.”
“Not like this Owen,” Gwen shot back. “Not is some dirty alley, like a cheap tart.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
“No.”
“Why not, for fuck’s sake, before loverboy arrived you know you were going to leave with me. Feeling guilty?” Owen sneered.
She was. Her two neatly ordered worlds had collided in front of her this evening. Rhys and Owen were never meant to meet. Especially not with her there to see them together.
“Great, you are,” Owen read her expression. He turned away from her and kicked at the rubbish on the ground.
There was an awkward silence between them.
Gwen was trying to think clearly but her mind was racing, couldn’t think straight. It wasn’t meant to be like this. Her head hurt from trying to decide what to do. Then she remembered... Rhys was staying at Dav’s.
Raising her eyes Gwen realised Owen was watching her carefully. This calm, intense Owen worried her more than the loud and angry Owen. She crossed the alley to where he was now leaning back against the far wall, in the shadows.
“I’m going home Owen. Alone.” She spoke softly, trying not to sound as confused and upset as she felt.
His face hardened. “You do what you want,” he pushed away from the wall and began to storm off.
“Owen,” she called after him. He ignored her. “Owen,” she shouted as he got to the street and just waved her away over his shoulder, not turning back.
Gwen felt crushed as Owen disappeared around the corner. She saw him again as she joined the taxi queue outside the nightclub. It was still early; it didn’t take more than a minute before she was in a car and moving towards her flat.
AS the car moved down the road they passed a figure walking quickly, hands jammed into his jacket pocket, hunched over against the cold breeze. Owen.
Gwen turned in her seat to watch him out the back window. Their eyes met and he stared at her until her car turned the next corner.
She held her composure as she was sped through the streets, while she paid the taxi driver, made it up the stairs to her front door. But as the key clicked in the lock the first miserable tears slid down her face. She stumbled through the dark flat and into her bedroom, dumping everything, bag, clothes, shoes, on the ground and throwing herself into the cold bed.
The confusion and hurt felt like it was swamping her as she hugged her pillow to her face and let the tears overcome her.
Ends