Torchwood: What You Want (Jack/Gwen) PG
Title: What You Want
Author: chris4short
prompt-in-a-box: Round #10
Prompt from Round #7, 49seconds: "Something always brings me back to you. (Gravity)"
Word Count: 874
Genre: Angst *kill me*
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing/Character: Jack/Gwen
Summary: Jack goes after Gwen after he didn't answer her question... and will Gwen really leave Rhys?
Timeline: After Season 2, since Gwen and Rhys are married.
Author's Note: Um I had this written for the round, but like all the things in my life, it fell through the cracks. I am glad I didn't delete this and still had it!
I watched the door close and bit my lip slightly. It wouldn’t take much to run down the tunnel and call her back. I could see myself doing that. I had dreamed of doing that late at night. Yet even as I stood, I could hear the faint clicking of her shoes disappear.
Disappear… like she was never to come back.
“Gwen!” I called suddenly, feeling the desperation, the need the want the finality… something breaking in me. “Gwen Cooper!”
I pulled the door open and rounded it, not caring that my braces slapped at my legs and for a moment made it hard to run up the stairs, after her, after her. I pushed them roughly over my shoulders, a hand on the center column steadying me, anchoring my hammering heart. How long I waited?
I burst through the hidden door into the tourist shack that suddenly felt too small, too dark, too fake and roughly pushed past Ianto, who, dear Lord, bless him, was pointing toward the door. Of course she would have gone that way, where else would she have gone?
The setting sun washed the centre in a soft glow and reflected off the tall water cascade sculpture. I put a hand up and looked through the crowd; setting sun meant it was after work, and after work meant most people went to walk by the bay, trying to wind down the day peacefully.
I called into the crowd, and a few faces turned, but none of them I wanted to see. I wanted to see Gwen, the one who became my personal anchor, my personal reason to wake up every morning. My reason why I didn’t quit Earth and move on. My reason to breath around her. I walked, scanning, searching, shoving a hand through my hair. She was gone. Nowhere to be found. I had indeed lost her. I had lost her.
“Jack?”
I stopped and heaved a sigh. That clipped voice dug straight to my heart and turned me around to face her. “Gwen.”
A perplexed smile came across her face as she took me in. “You alright?”
“Yes.” Now I would be. I stepped toward her, almost touching her, letting her loose hair be caught in the light breeze and waif around her. “Yes,” I repeated.
She looked up at me, questioning green eyes, and a slight raised eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to figure out if I was simply answering her question now, or the one back at the Hub. Honestly I wasn’t entirely sure either. But the answer to every question seemed to be simply Yes.
“Jack, I’m staying with Rhys. I can’t leave him,” she said, breaking the silence. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked you what I’d do if I left him. He needs me. He loves me, and I love him.” She nodded, not quite meeting my eyes.
“So that’s it?” I asked, feeling a tinge of anger. “You ask me if there is anything between us, and because I - admittedly - screwed up and didn’t answer, you now love him again?”
“Jack, don’t be mad.”
“I have every right to be mad!”
“You didn’t say anything! You stood there, making me look like an ass, Jack!”
She shoved her hands in her pockets and glared at me. I wanted to take her hands and place them on my chest, hit me knock me try to kill me. I wanted to see the fire burn in her eyes, not the sense of defeat that hung between us.
“So your mind is made up?”
She nodded, once, not looking at me. “I was stupid, Jack, to think there was something. My choice was already made, and I guess I didn’t want to face them. It was stay with Rhys and work to make our marriage stronger again, or leave and hope there was something waiting. But I see I was being stupid.”
She turned and walked a few paces away before I called out to her.
“I am the stupid one for letting you walk away. Gwen, come back, there is more than just the awkwardness. There is more than the question. I do...”
She crossed back and had planted her lips firmly on mine, wrapping her arms around my neck and crashing her body into mine. I felt the stars quiver, the planets shake, and my arms tighten around the one who made me spin.
“He offers me normalcy Jack,” she whispered pulling away.
And I was left, empty handed and bruised. Did she ever want me to begin with, or was the thought of a lifetime of adventure too much? Normalcy was… I shook my head. I pushed it out of my head as I walked back to the Hub. Gwen Cooper had walked away but at least she knew what she was walking away from. A ghost of a smile came to my lips as I passed Ianto once more, retreating below. She knew what she wanted, and she’d ask herself if there was really a normal life - or any life - worth living that meant shutting her heart away.
And she would come back to me. And I’d be waiting.
Author: chris4short
prompt-in-a-box: Round #10
Prompt from Round #7, 49seconds: "Something always brings me back to you. (Gravity)"
Word Count: 874
Genre: Angst *kill me*
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing/Character: Jack/Gwen
Summary: Jack goes after Gwen after he didn't answer her question... and will Gwen really leave Rhys?
Timeline: After Season 2, since Gwen and Rhys are married.
Author's Note: Um I had this written for the round, but like all the things in my life, it fell through the cracks. I am glad I didn't delete this and still had it!
I watched the door close and bit my lip slightly. It wouldn’t take much to run down the tunnel and call her back. I could see myself doing that. I had dreamed of doing that late at night. Yet even as I stood, I could hear the faint clicking of her shoes disappear.
Disappear… like she was never to come back.
“Gwen!” I called suddenly, feeling the desperation, the need the want the finality… something breaking in me. “Gwen Cooper!”
I pulled the door open and rounded it, not caring that my braces slapped at my legs and for a moment made it hard to run up the stairs, after her, after her. I pushed them roughly over my shoulders, a hand on the center column steadying me, anchoring my hammering heart. How long I waited?
I burst through the hidden door into the tourist shack that suddenly felt too small, too dark, too fake and roughly pushed past Ianto, who, dear Lord, bless him, was pointing toward the door. Of course she would have gone that way, where else would she have gone?
The setting sun washed the centre in a soft glow and reflected off the tall water cascade sculpture. I put a hand up and looked through the crowd; setting sun meant it was after work, and after work meant most people went to walk by the bay, trying to wind down the day peacefully.
I called into the crowd, and a few faces turned, but none of them I wanted to see. I wanted to see Gwen, the one who became my personal anchor, my personal reason to wake up every morning. My reason why I didn’t quit Earth and move on. My reason to breath around her. I walked, scanning, searching, shoving a hand through my hair. She was gone. Nowhere to be found. I had indeed lost her. I had lost her.
“Jack?”
I stopped and heaved a sigh. That clipped voice dug straight to my heart and turned me around to face her. “Gwen.”
A perplexed smile came across her face as she took me in. “You alright?”
“Yes.” Now I would be. I stepped toward her, almost touching her, letting her loose hair be caught in the light breeze and waif around her. “Yes,” I repeated.
She looked up at me, questioning green eyes, and a slight raised eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to figure out if I was simply answering her question now, or the one back at the Hub. Honestly I wasn’t entirely sure either. But the answer to every question seemed to be simply Yes.
“Jack, I’m staying with Rhys. I can’t leave him,” she said, breaking the silence. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked you what I’d do if I left him. He needs me. He loves me, and I love him.” She nodded, not quite meeting my eyes.
“So that’s it?” I asked, feeling a tinge of anger. “You ask me if there is anything between us, and because I - admittedly - screwed up and didn’t answer, you now love him again?”
“Jack, don’t be mad.”
“I have every right to be mad!”
“You didn’t say anything! You stood there, making me look like an ass, Jack!”
She shoved her hands in her pockets and glared at me. I wanted to take her hands and place them on my chest, hit me knock me try to kill me. I wanted to see the fire burn in her eyes, not the sense of defeat that hung between us.
“So your mind is made up?”
She nodded, once, not looking at me. “I was stupid, Jack, to think there was something. My choice was already made, and I guess I didn’t want to face them. It was stay with Rhys and work to make our marriage stronger again, or leave and hope there was something waiting. But I see I was being stupid.”
She turned and walked a few paces away before I called out to her.
“I am the stupid one for letting you walk away. Gwen, come back, there is more than just the awkwardness. There is more than the question. I do...”
She crossed back and had planted her lips firmly on mine, wrapping her arms around my neck and crashing her body into mine. I felt the stars quiver, the planets shake, and my arms tighten around the one who made me spin.
“He offers me normalcy Jack,” she whispered pulling away.
And I was left, empty handed and bruised. Did she ever want me to begin with, or was the thought of a lifetime of adventure too much? Normalcy was… I shook my head. I pushed it out of my head as I walked back to the Hub. Gwen Cooper had walked away but at least she knew what she was walking away from. A ghost of a smile came to my lips as I passed Ianto once more, retreating below. She knew what she wanted, and she’d ask herself if there was really a normal life - or any life - worth living that meant shutting her heart away.
And she would come back to me. And I’d be waiting.