FIC: Torchwood - "Places"
Title: Places
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen Cooper
Challenge: theatrical_muse, challenge #235: where do you live?
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Cross-posted to my LJ, to theatrical_muse, and to torchwoodgwen.
Places
When she was very young, Gwen wanted to live with her grandmother. Her house smelled of baking and laundry and caring. Her books were battered and old, but as friendly as the old upholstery and the potted plants. It was a wonderful place to be.
At home, she was scolded sometimes for not cleaning up her room, or asking too many questions, or staying out too late.
Now she had a place of her own, and she had to admit she left Rhys to do too much of the housework. She just didn't have time. There was a woman who came in sometimes to clean, and Rhys didn't really mind that she couldn't do her share of laundry and dishwashing. She loved the place, with its desk for her computer, and the comfy sofa where Rhys liked to watch the nighttime soaps, and where they'd sometimes make out just because they could and there was no reason not to.
But she loved their bedroom and she loved their bed, the happiest place in Cardiff. Well... usually.
Sometimes she thought, though, that it wasn't really her place. It was their place, her and Rhys's, a carefully tended neutral ground where his music and her music met a compromise with albums they both liked. Where he might not scold when she came home late, but he couldn't hide that he hated it when she was late for supper, late for bed, or not home at all for days. At times like that, his silence spoke volumes. Sometimes his annoyance with her job made him ask questions, too many questions. It was like an interrogatin. She was the one who got angry then, needed to cool down, needed to understand his point of view. No one ever said marriage was easy. No one ever lived with anyone, without compromise.
She couldn't even complain about the hideous green vase in the closet, given to them by his mother, who had no taste at all.
In some ways, the Hub felt more like home than the flat, more like her own territory. She'd made changes while Jack was gone, put in a new Board Room, set Owen and Tosh up with the hothouse for alien and native plants, transferred some of the debris to the lower storage tunnels. She couldn't believe how big the place was. Jack had never told her; it took Ianto to show her, when she was the one in charge.
When Jack came back, he left her changes. He was casual that way. He never objected to her music, or Owen's. He didn't complain about the scattered pizza boxes, as long as Ianto took care of them. He paid little attention to when Gwen came in or left, because they all worked most of the time, and he took it for granted.
The Hub felt like home, and except for the times she and Jack disagreed and had a flaming row about it, she was happy there. It was more comfortable in its way than the flat she shared with Rhys, though it embarrassed her a little to think that. But why not? She had everything she wanted - except Rhys - right here at the Torchwood Hub.
It was a wonderful place to be.
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Character: Gwen Cooper
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Words: 544
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