So take my hand, you're treading water, and I feel sand slipping away from underneath our toes...

[definitivestep]

Gwen is waiting in the lobby of the Kashtta for Sam and Owen to get back. There might also be a Tosh hovering somewhere in the vicinity, sitting by the receptionist's desk with her laptop... just in case she's needed for anything

Comments

[der_weevilkonig]

...oh, and so that's it.

Owen crosses his arms, looking around at all of them before finally jogging after Gwen. "Hey!" he shouts, maybe a bit louder than is necessary, but to hell with that. "We're not finished yet."

Yeah, because he has a brilliant plan. ...not really. He just doesn't want to lose to a fucking Time Lady and her damn dog.

"We've still got the gun, right?" he asks, as he catches up. "I mean, the gun didn't blow up or anything."

The gun had better not have blown up. That would make an unbearable situation full-on murder-worthy.

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen swings back around to face him, looking a little like she might kill things. It's not directed at Owen, really, she's just hating the world in general.

"No, it didn't blow up, and if you're about to ask if you can have it, the answer is no. And if you've got a brilliant plan, Owen, tell me now, because we are running out of options that don't include blowing up the city!" And even that's not a viable option, really, because Thane would survive it. She's not much thinking about what she's saying now.

[der_weevilkonig]

Join the club, love; I'm just as fucking pissed off about this as you are.

"We can still take the arm," Owen says, sounding like he bloody well knows they're at the end of their rope and floundering. "Thing can make his head explode, maybe it can take his arm off at the shoulder. they we lose the teleports but we can keep emptying bullets into Thane until we've got him tied up. Look, I know it's not a good plan-" He can't quite shake the image of Thane as some terminator-like monster who'd lose an arm and come at them firing one-handed with blood coming out of the stump in spurts, "-but this would have worked. We were one bitch away from being done with this."

Never mind that Thane might not give them an open shot. Never mind that Thane can walk into the tower and kill them all. Or destroy the gun. Or possibly find some way to circumvent it. Or set up a trap for them assuming they'd try again. Or seems to have the entire universe of luck on his side.

They are not done yet. They're Torchwood, and Torchwood comes through

[torchwoodsheart]

"Do you know where he is now, Owen? Do you really think he's not going to come back to life and come right back at us before we can do it again? He knows we have the gun. He knows we'll try again. Can you point out one way we're not completely fucked in all of this?"

She probably shouldn't be shouting like this. As the leader of Torchwood, she should probably be keeping it together, at least maintaining a modicum of calm, but she is so far beyond that right now.

[der_weevilkonig]

"He's done a shitty job of killing us all so far!" Owen yells back. No, it won't help anything, but it feels - it doesn't even feel good, but it would feel worse not to. "He obviously doesn't want us dead yet or we'd all be fine smears on the floor! If we have to we can hide in the TARDIS, it might not vanish again, and it's not like any of us even noticed when it did, and we did fine without Jack bloody Harkness before! I didn't sign on so we could get our arses handed to us by some botoxed sadist who thinks we'll roll over and give up if he struts long enough! We are not giving up, Gwen!"

And that's, in a sense, what this is about. Not that Owen realizes it, or would admit it if he did. Jack left. They managed without him. Sure, they fell through a rift one by one, but they managed without him. He comes back, not even from their proper universe, acting like they can't do a damn thing without his blessed oversight, and then he vanished again (if you could call writing back every week or two and meddling as much as he damn

[torchwoodsheart]

She reaches up to run a hand through her hair, shaking her head a little, and she lets out a soft laugh that sounds like it might be a last-ditch effort to keep from crying. "So that's it, then? We hide out in the TARDIS, try to come up with a plan to stop him before he destroys the city? Because all our plans so far have worked so well. Owen, we can't-"

Gwen draws a slow breath, and her voice drops a little. "How long do you really think we can keep this up? No, he hasn't killed us yet, but we haven't blown off his head yet either. This was supposed to be the end. Tonight, and I-"

I'm not sure I can do this anymore. She can't say that. Saying that sounds too much like giving up, and she can't afford to give up, just like she couldn't before, when it was just her in the Hub and it felt like the world was falling down around her, but even that was simpler than this and she doesn't bloody know where to go from here. She can't just keep pressing forward, one foot behind other - she'll just end up walking them all over a cliff.

[der_weevilkonig]

Oh, brilliant. She's breaking apart and it's not like he's any better at this. He usually makes it a point to be far away with a drink in hand when they get to situations where people start crying, but that's obviously not an option, and he hates the fact that his first instinct is to think Jack usually takes care of the touchy-feely crap. Jack's not here. To hell with Jack. To hell with-

He grabs her shoulders, trying to look into her eyes. "We're not done yet, hey? We do the job. It's what we've always done, it's what we'll do here. This isn't the first time something's blown up in our face. At least it blew up more in Thane's, yeah? ...bad joke." Just give me something that's not you starting to fucking cry. I'm not dealing with that. "...right; you should get some sleep; you're in no state to be thinking tactically. Doctor's orders. I'll sedate you if you need it. Or you can have some warm milk and curl up under a blanket for a few hours; that's less work on my end

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen glances up to meet Owen's eyes, and then looks away again, nodding a little. She takes a soft, gasping breath, and then another, just trying to steady herself, and then nods a little with an apologetic smile. Right, she's got it together, she's not going to fall apart here in the middle of the lobby.

"I'll manage without the sedatives," she says after a moment, "but thank you." Well, coming from Owen, the offer is actually almost sweet, even if it's probably just because he wouldn't know what to do with her if she fell apart. "I think I'm just... I'm gonna go lie down for a bit. If anything happens..."

Oh, who is she kidding? If anything happens, they probably won't have time to come get her.

[der_weevilkonig]

"If anything happens, I'll make sure you don't get too comfortable," Owen says. Pointedly does not mention that he's thinking he might just find a bar and go through hard liquors until he starts punching people and getting thrown out of places. He gives her a crooked smile that... doesn't much look like a smile at all. "Call me if you change your mind on the drugs."

[torchwoodsheart]

"I will. And... thank you." She turns quickly and starts up the stairs, trying very hard not to think about Thane or Jack or the Rani or whatever. If the world decides to end while she's not paying attention... well, no one can say she didn't try.