Fic: The Pride of Castle Gate (Gwen POV / Team PG)
Title: The Pride of Castle Gate
Author: wynkat1313
Characters: Team + Andy, Rhys
Prompt: Sin number one: Pride. POV: Gwen
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1474
Author's Notes: Written for tw_lucky_7 ,
This is part one of "The Sins of Castle Gate"
Summary: All Gwen knows is that it’s cold and damp, and badly lit, and they are going have to retcon Andy for certain this time. Or just bloody hire him. Damnit! She’d warned Jack.
Pride / Gwen Copper-Williams
Gwen watched the alien toss Jack high into the air.
They always say it looks like a rag doll. It didn’t. It just looked like Jack being thrown about. Like Jack about to die yet again, all because he never listened. Like all of them about to die beneath the foundations of the Black Tower of Cardiff Castle, how horribly appropriate.
The alien bounced Jack between its large and small foremost claws, all the while balancing its segmented, and heavily armored, body on its considerable tail and four rear leg-like things. Unfortunately for Jack and the team, that left two more sets of appendages, each with pincers or claws, Gwen decided she didn’t care what the difference was between them, only that in this case the alien’s version was capable of wielding a gun in each one. That was decidedly not good.
From the corner of her eye she could see the rest of the team frozen in place, just like she was. All of them wondering: Do they move? Do they surge forward and rush the alien? Jack would be dead no matter what they did. But Jack always came back. It was as though his pain and blood had locked them in place. They couldn’t move.
She could hear each of them breathing. Even Andy, who shouldn’t even be with them. He was standing somewhere on the other side of the Guard room, or wherever the hell in the tower they were. All Gwen knew was that was cold and damp, and badly lit, and they were going have to retcon Andy for certain this time. Or just bloody hire him. Damnit! She’d warned Jack.
And Rhys! Rhys was standing behind her, his breathing erratic, even though he knew Jack’s secret like the rest of them. The tension was still there in him as well, the fear and the worry. Asking, like all of them: what do they do? What should they do?
The alien turned three eye stalks towards her, its irises glowed with an internal sulfur yellow gleam. Two more eye stalks were hovering over Jack’s head. “Is this what you came for?”
Alien claws clicked a tattoo, the bone wet sound frighteningly loud. Jack cried out as the alien tightened the largest of its claws around his chest. Then it tossed Jack up in the air once more, pulling a collective gasp from their lungs.
“Stop it!” Gwen shouted. “Just let him go.” She held her gun in a white-knuckle grip and stepped closer to the alien. “Let him go and we can work this out.”
“HA!” All five of the alien’s eye stalks whirled toward her, each of them flashing and spinning in different colors, the orbs twitching on the ends of the stalks. She wondered if it was on something. She’d seen something like this. Well, not the colors, but the crazed behavior before in junkies. “Work out this situation? That’s a laugh.”
The alien let Jack drop through its claws with a chitter of claw on claw. The team surged forward and then stopped as it caught him by one wool-covered arm. The look on Jack’s face was pure misery. His eyes flicked from Ianto to Owen and then to Gwen. He was trying to tell her something. Probably to let him die and get on with it, but she couldn’t do that. It didn’t matter that he would come back to life. The alien didn’t know that. It might just keep killing Jack, and she couldn’t watch that, couldn’t let any of them watch that.
She shook her head minutely. Jack closed his eyes. Message received.
“What is it you want?” She inched closer, sweat slicking her grip.
“What do I want!?! Nothing! Everything” It pulled Jack up to its scaled face and probed at his face with its long mouth whiskers. Gwen shivered as the whiskers traced Jack’s check and dipped into his open mouth. “I want what he has. I want life and sex and food and security. I want what you all want. I WANT ECSTASY!” Its legs shivered, pincers clacking together out of sync with the rise and fall of its carapace.
“Put him down and we can work something out.”
“No!”
“Gwen…” Owen hissed beside her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Shut it Owen,” Gwen hissed back. Then without turning her head, or looking anywhere but at the alien and Jack, she called out across the jumble of equipment and medical supplies that the alien had been ransacking, and Gwen couldn’t help herself wondering what the hell had those been doing in the Black Tower.
“Ianto? Tosh?”
She saw Ianto nod ever so slightly and then Tosh’s head bob on her shorter frame a few meters away in the shadows. They’d found positions and hopefully holes in the things amour. She had to trust that they could make this work.
Gwen took another step toward the alien. “I said put him down.”
“Make me!” The alien shouted. It flicked its whiskers through the sweat and blood of Jack’s neck, bringing the fluid to its mouth.
Two gunshots echoed through the guard room.
The alien blinked, all of its irises flashing yellow then spinning into blue streaks. It dropped to its knees, dragging Jack to the ground with it as it went. A second round of shots blew out the remainder of its skull. It toppled to the floor, all communication between body and brain severed.
“Ok. We will,” Gwen said quietly, watching as Ianto and Owen push the alien off of Jack. She felt Rhys step up to her, his chest a warm comfort against her back, his breath slowing as all their brains registered that the danger was past. She wanted to sink into his presence, but it was too soon.
She watched as Owen looked up at Ianto and shook his head. One more death for them all to live through. Ianto nodded and pulled Jack into his arms, prepared to wait out the inevitable.
Then they all watched, ice statues once more, as Jack raised a shaking hand to Ianto’s face only to stop mid-way through to cough up too much blood. With a rattle and a sigh he was gone.
Owen broke free of his sculptural pose to hurl himself at Gwen. “What the hell were you thinking?! You could have gotten us all killed!”
She looked at Owen, wanted so badly to yell at him, to tell him how wrong he was, how she had done everything for them, to save them. That it had been Jack that had led them into this mess. Jack and his lack of planning. Jack and his damn pride! But she didn’t. She had other things to do. Other people to help right now. Other things that were more important that her needs or Owen’s anger.
She looked past Owen to her former partner. “Andy,” she called out, watched the PC shake himself out of his frozen state, out of fear and confusion to look at her. “Andy it’s okay. Jack’s different. He’s special. Just trust me on this, yeah?”
Andy’s eyes were tea saucer wide, but he nodded and looked back at Ianto and Jack. “He’s dead.”
“He’ll be okay,” she said again.
Owen grabbed her arm. “Damn it Gwen!”
“Let go of my wife!” Rhys said, stepping between her and Owen.
Gwen put a hand on Rhys’ arm. “It’s alright sweetheart. Let me handle this.” She looked up at him. She couldn’t exactly smile given everything, but she tried to show him that it really would be okay if he would just trust her in this, that she really did know what she was doing and could handle things. Rhys sighed and stepped back.
She turned to Owen. “I did what I had to do Owen, you know that. Jack’s the one who nearly got us all killed with his lack of planning. If he had just listened to me this once…” There, she’d said it.
Owen started to respond but was cut off by Jack’s return and Andy’s shout of surprise.
“See, Andy, I told you it would be fine…” Gwen said, pulling Andy away. “Tosh, will you explain things to Andy please?”
Tosh nodded. “Sure thing.”
Gwen looked down at Jack. His eyes were open and he was smiling at something Ianto had said, or maybe something he had said to Ianto given the look Ianto was giving him. He was back and the alien was dead. Not the ideal way of things, but pretty typical for them. At least the rest of the team was still alive, that had to count for something.
She caught Jack looking at her. He nodded, giving her that odd half smile he used with her sometimes. Jack knew what she’d done and why. She smiled back. It wasn’t normal, but it worked.
Lust / Ianto Jones
Author: wynkat1313
Characters: Team + Andy, Rhys
Prompt: Sin number one: Pride. POV: Gwen
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1474
Author's Notes: Written for tw_lucky_7 ,
This is part one of "The Sins of Castle Gate"
Summary: All Gwen knows is that it’s cold and damp, and badly lit, and they are going have to retcon Andy for certain this time. Or just bloody hire him. Damnit! She’d warned Jack.
Pride / Gwen Copper-Williams
Gwen watched the alien toss Jack high into the air.
They always say it looks like a rag doll. It didn’t. It just looked like Jack being thrown about. Like Jack about to die yet again, all because he never listened. Like all of them about to die beneath the foundations of the Black Tower of Cardiff Castle, how horribly appropriate.
The alien bounced Jack between its large and small foremost claws, all the while balancing its segmented, and heavily armored, body on its considerable tail and four rear leg-like things. Unfortunately for Jack and the team, that left two more sets of appendages, each with pincers or claws, Gwen decided she didn’t care what the difference was between them, only that in this case the alien’s version was capable of wielding a gun in each one. That was decidedly not good.
From the corner of her eye she could see the rest of the team frozen in place, just like she was. All of them wondering: Do they move? Do they surge forward and rush the alien? Jack would be dead no matter what they did. But Jack always came back. It was as though his pain and blood had locked them in place. They couldn’t move.
She could hear each of them breathing. Even Andy, who shouldn’t even be with them. He was standing somewhere on the other side of the Guard room, or wherever the hell in the tower they were. All Gwen knew was that was cold and damp, and badly lit, and they were going have to retcon Andy for certain this time. Or just bloody hire him. Damnit! She’d warned Jack.
And Rhys! Rhys was standing behind her, his breathing erratic, even though he knew Jack’s secret like the rest of them. The tension was still there in him as well, the fear and the worry. Asking, like all of them: what do they do? What should they do?
The alien turned three eye stalks towards her, its irises glowed with an internal sulfur yellow gleam. Two more eye stalks were hovering over Jack’s head. “Is this what you came for?”
Alien claws clicked a tattoo, the bone wet sound frighteningly loud. Jack cried out as the alien tightened the largest of its claws around his chest. Then it tossed Jack up in the air once more, pulling a collective gasp from their lungs.
“Stop it!” Gwen shouted. “Just let him go.” She held her gun in a white-knuckle grip and stepped closer to the alien. “Let him go and we can work this out.”
“HA!” All five of the alien’s eye stalks whirled toward her, each of them flashing and spinning in different colors, the orbs twitching on the ends of the stalks. She wondered if it was on something. She’d seen something like this. Well, not the colors, but the crazed behavior before in junkies. “Work out this situation? That’s a laugh.”
The alien let Jack drop through its claws with a chitter of claw on claw. The team surged forward and then stopped as it caught him by one wool-covered arm. The look on Jack’s face was pure misery. His eyes flicked from Ianto to Owen and then to Gwen. He was trying to tell her something. Probably to let him die and get on with it, but she couldn’t do that. It didn’t matter that he would come back to life. The alien didn’t know that. It might just keep killing Jack, and she couldn’t watch that, couldn’t let any of them watch that.
She shook her head minutely. Jack closed his eyes. Message received.
“What is it you want?” She inched closer, sweat slicking her grip.
“What do I want!?! Nothing! Everything” It pulled Jack up to its scaled face and probed at his face with its long mouth whiskers. Gwen shivered as the whiskers traced Jack’s check and dipped into his open mouth. “I want what he has. I want life and sex and food and security. I want what you all want. I WANT ECSTASY!” Its legs shivered, pincers clacking together out of sync with the rise and fall of its carapace.
“Put him down and we can work something out.”
“No!”
“Gwen…” Owen hissed beside her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Shut it Owen,” Gwen hissed back. Then without turning her head, or looking anywhere but at the alien and Jack, she called out across the jumble of equipment and medical supplies that the alien had been ransacking, and Gwen couldn’t help herself wondering what the hell had those been doing in the Black Tower.
“Ianto? Tosh?”
She saw Ianto nod ever so slightly and then Tosh’s head bob on her shorter frame a few meters away in the shadows. They’d found positions and hopefully holes in the things amour. She had to trust that they could make this work.
Gwen took another step toward the alien. “I said put him down.”
“Make me!” The alien shouted. It flicked its whiskers through the sweat and blood of Jack’s neck, bringing the fluid to its mouth.
Two gunshots echoed through the guard room.
The alien blinked, all of its irises flashing yellow then spinning into blue streaks. It dropped to its knees, dragging Jack to the ground with it as it went. A second round of shots blew out the remainder of its skull. It toppled to the floor, all communication between body and brain severed.
“Ok. We will,” Gwen said quietly, watching as Ianto and Owen push the alien off of Jack. She felt Rhys step up to her, his chest a warm comfort against her back, his breath slowing as all their brains registered that the danger was past. She wanted to sink into his presence, but it was too soon.
She watched as Owen looked up at Ianto and shook his head. One more death for them all to live through. Ianto nodded and pulled Jack into his arms, prepared to wait out the inevitable.
Then they all watched, ice statues once more, as Jack raised a shaking hand to Ianto’s face only to stop mid-way through to cough up too much blood. With a rattle and a sigh he was gone.
Owen broke free of his sculptural pose to hurl himself at Gwen. “What the hell were you thinking?! You could have gotten us all killed!”
She looked at Owen, wanted so badly to yell at him, to tell him how wrong he was, how she had done everything for them, to save them. That it had been Jack that had led them into this mess. Jack and his lack of planning. Jack and his damn pride! But she didn’t. She had other things to do. Other people to help right now. Other things that were more important that her needs or Owen’s anger.
She looked past Owen to her former partner. “Andy,” she called out, watched the PC shake himself out of his frozen state, out of fear and confusion to look at her. “Andy it’s okay. Jack’s different. He’s special. Just trust me on this, yeah?”
Andy’s eyes were tea saucer wide, but he nodded and looked back at Ianto and Jack. “He’s dead.”
“He’ll be okay,” she said again.
Owen grabbed her arm. “Damn it Gwen!”
“Let go of my wife!” Rhys said, stepping between her and Owen.
Gwen put a hand on Rhys’ arm. “It’s alright sweetheart. Let me handle this.” She looked up at him. She couldn’t exactly smile given everything, but she tried to show him that it really would be okay if he would just trust her in this, that she really did know what she was doing and could handle things. Rhys sighed and stepped back.
She turned to Owen. “I did what I had to do Owen, you know that. Jack’s the one who nearly got us all killed with his lack of planning. If he had just listened to me this once…” There, she’d said it.
Owen started to respond but was cut off by Jack’s return and Andy’s shout of surprise.
“See, Andy, I told you it would be fine…” Gwen said, pulling Andy away. “Tosh, will you explain things to Andy please?”
Tosh nodded. “Sure thing.”
Gwen looked down at Jack. His eyes were open and he was smiling at something Ianto had said, or maybe something he had said to Ianto given the look Ianto was giving him. He was back and the alien was dead. Not the ideal way of things, but pretty typical for them. At least the rest of the team was still alive, that had to count for something.
She caught Jack looking at her. He nodded, giving her that odd half smile he used with her sometimes. Jack knew what she’d done and why. She smiled back. It wasn’t normal, but it worked.
Lust / Ianto Jones