He Remembered
Word Count: 453
Summary: Gwen thought he didn't know. Couldn't remember. Would never be able to. But Rhys did.
Characters: Rhys Williams
Pairing: Gwen/Rhys
Rating: PG
Spoiler: Countrycide, Combat, Meat
Setting: starts after Meat
Warnings: mention of adultery
Author's Note: Written for torchwood_las and the prompt Memories. The additional word to use was purple.
Beta: Eleanor Harkness-Jones, thank you!
Disclaimer: I'm not making money with this fanfic. The tv-show Torchwood and the characters appearing within it belong to their producers and creators. Any similarities to living or dead persons are purely coincidental and not intended.
xxx
Gwen thought he didn't know. Couldn't remember. Would never be able to.
But Rhys did.
He remembered: her stumbled apology when she'd told him that she'd put an amnesia pill into his drink, her confession of sleeping with somebody else, his rage at her frantic pleas to forgive her. Rhys remembered all of that after the business with the space whale.
At first he'd thought it was a dream, a strange nightmare fuelled by his own insecurities. Then the images had started to bleed into his daily life – whenever he sat on the couch in their flat, whenever Gwen called and told him she'd be home late, whenever she mentioned her male colleagues. An innocent question about Retcon had told him the truth then: her trapped look when he'd asked her jokingly if she'd ever used it on him, the forced smile that screamed Liar, liar, liar! The one she'd given him when she'd told him that her mother liked him, the one she'd used when she'd said that she was just doing the filing for her new Special Ops job, the one he'd seen on her face when she'd said that the gunshot wound in her side came from an accident on the shooting range, 'my colleague, that clumsy sod'. He was sure then. She'd used Retcon on him and she'd erased her confession from his memories. What he didn't remember, though, was the name she'd said. Memories were funny that way, apparently.
So he watched. All those times he picked her up from work and was allowed down in the Hub. He saw Jack hug and wink at her, the flirty innuendos and her light-hearted answers. He saw her and Ianto smile at each other, whisper to each other and laugh about insider jokes he didn't get. He saw Owen being a bit too hands-on during basketball games and the playful banter between them. He even saw Gwen and Tosh exchange glances, sharing their pizzas and Thai food.
He never asked her, though. He didn't want to risk destroying what they had built so carefully over the last few years. He'd rather live with that uncertainty than losing her because he knew that whatever – whoever – it had been, it was over, and she loved him. It was in the smile she gave him when he bought her that purple dress she'd wanted for so long, it was in her eyes when they exchanged rings on their wedding day, and it was in the way she clung to him when her world fell apart around her, taking Owen and Tosh away.
It hurt but he could stand that. It would stop one day.
Or at least, he hoped so.
END
05/12