Christmas Gifts

Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.

"Oh, just bloody shut up."

"Wha's goin' on?"

"I'm yelling at my alarm clock."

"Hmm. Is it replying back?"

"Go back to sleep."

---- x ---- x ---- x ---- x ---- x ---- x ---

"Goodmorning!" Gwen replied cheerily, presenting a cup of hot coffee in front of her sleepy, bed-headed boyfriend. He grunted in reply, graciously accepting the coffee and taking a sip, wincing when it almost burned the top of his mouth. Messy brown hair fell in his eyes, not to mention he was dressed in a red T-shirt and jeans. He had the look of a person that had just woken up. Which he had, ignoring the fact it was ten thirty in the morning.

"What day is it today?"

"The day before Christmas." Gwen replied, sitting down opposite him with an identical cup of coffee. She thirsted for the way Ianto made coffee, but he wasn't here and she had to settle for her own. Which was no where near as good, but Rhys looked satisfied with it. It made her happy, to know that she had this normal life. At least half of it; she was still with Torchwood, but life without it was unthinkable. No, for now, she was happy. "Which reminds me -I'm going to ask you a favor. I was thinking, going to go to work today," She saw a wary look cross Rhys face, so she hurried on. "Just pop in, say hello, and then I'll spend the whole day with you tomorrow."

"The whole day?"

Gwen smiled. "From dawn 'till dusk if you want, yeah."

Rhys nodded. "That sounds good. I'll take you up on that offer. And hold you to it, mind you."

"so..." Gwen said. "You don't mind me being gone for today?"

Rhys stood up, put his empty coffee cup in the sink, and then turned back to her with a smile. "No. Go on."

"Yes!" Gwen stood up, throwing her arms around him and then pecking him on the cheek. "Thank you. The whole day, tomorrow, I promise you!" She called back over her shoulder as she snagged the car keys and slipped out the door. She ran to her car, got inside, and cast one last look towards her apartment window before she pulled out of the driveway and headed in the early morning traffic towards Torchwood. She glanced in the back seat, satisfied at the small stack of presents that were on the back seat that she had stashed there last night.

--- x ---- x ---- x ----

"Good morning, Ianto." Gwen said cheerily as she walked in and saw Ianto at the tourist desk. He looked up, startled, but gave her a smile. He seemed to be surprised, because the rest of the crew usually ignored him in the morning until he gave them their morning coffee, and that was when they said hello. He noticed that Gwen was happier than usual - Holiday spirits, he guessed. It amused him.

And then he saw the pile of wrapped packages she was carrying. He raised an eyebrow at her.

--- x -- x -- x --

"I have a favor to ask you all." Gwen said, setting the presents down at her desk with an 'oomph'. "Rhys wants me to be at home tomorrow, so I was wondering if I could give you your presents early."

"Presents?" Owen's ears perked.

Gwen stared at him. "Don't tell me you guys don't celebrate Christmas."

"We do." Jack said, appearing from his office. "Usually we just celebrate at home. Everyone gets that day off."

"Yeah." Owen droned dryly. "We get to sleep in every other holiday." Tosh whacked him over the head with her file as she went towards her desk. Owen, in return, rolled his eyes and rubbed his head dramatically.

Gwen smiled, and then handed him a present. "Here. Merry Christmas."

Owen stared at her for a minute, and she could see the speculative look he was giving her. He was arguing with himself whether to take the present or not, Gwen realized.

And it was true. Owen was used to being annoying and arrogant - and was treated with respect that he earned, but never kindness. He wanted co-workers, not friends, not family, not lovers. He wanted work, not love. He wanted fear, not familair. He was born hated, raised in an orphanage, taught himself how to survive when he finally ran away. He had been disrespected and spat on all those years as a teenager, surprising everyone when he went off to college to learn how to be a doctor. He was fascinated by the human body, how it healed and forced the body to rest whilst doing so. And even more, he didn't want to be afraid anymore. College cured him of that. He got a rush of adrenaline every time there was danger, that there was a chance that his body might not heal. Ever again.

He wanted to say something sarcastic and smart; to scorn her. Doctor Owen Harper, excepting gifts? Ha!

... Damn his curiosity.

Gingerly he took it and glanced at it. Amused, he saw the Santa Clause heads on a green, Christmassy background.

"Thanks." He mumbled, looking down at it.

"Open it!" Gwen said excitedly. She reminded him of a toddler.

He opened it, and pulled out something white. The bottom fell to the ground gracefully as he held it up, and a smile/smirk came to his lips as he saw the writing. It was a doctors coat, but it was shorter than the one he had. Which could be useful if he was ever wearing it and he had to get away quickly. He also saw that it had zippers, and various pockets with different way to open and close them.

"It also has a zip-lock one, too. Guaranteed that no air or chemicals will get in or out of it. I thought you'd be able to use it, if you ever needed to use an alien medication on someone that was dangerous or something..." She trailed off, and Owen knew she was anxious to know if he liked it or not.

"Useful. But what I like is the writing." Jack smirked.

In bold red letters, across the front of it read:

I'm a doctor, and what I say goes.

And if I say you're dieing, you're dieing. So be nice to me.)

As soon as Tosh and Ianto saw the writing, they burst out laughing. Jack continued smiling innocently, and Owen threw a wad of paper at Ianto and Tosh in annoyance. He rolled his eyes as he turned his chair around and stood, slipping it on. He'd humor Gwen. Even though a small voice in the back of his said 'nanana, you actually like it. Owen Harper is going softie!' He ignored it.

"Thanks. I love it." He said quickly, when her face looked a bit crestfallen. She brightened immediately. Owen still found it hard to deny her of anything.

"Tosh! Open yours." Gwen said, handing Tosh a blue present. Tosh blushed, taking the long parcel and looking at it. She turned it over, looking for a good place to open it.

"C'mon, Tosh, tear it open! We're not gonna save the wrapping paper." Jack grinned, egging her on. Tosh took up to it and tore open the paper, and froze when she saw what was inside.

It was a white box, but on the cover showed a onyx black keyboard with a lot of little keys. It was long but not very wide, with all of the keys in a simple array; even in alphabetical order.

"Gwen!" Tosh said excitedly. "Thank you! I've been having to use one of the old keyboards since someone," She said a pointed look towards Owen, who ignored it. "-Had to go and spill coffee all over the one I was using. And it's very rare to find the keys in alphabetical order, too. Where'd you get it?"

"I can't reveal my sources." Gwen said with a mischevious grin. Even though her sources were Rhys friends; she had told Rhys she needed to get her computer-geek co-worker a present. Rhys then told one guy, who told another guy, who asked another guy, found the keyboard, told the last guy, the last guy told the other guy, and so on until it reached back to Rhys.

"Ooho, Jack, watch out. Gwennie girl has sources now!"

Gwen ignored him and handed Ianto his wrapped present. He seemed embarrassed, but he didn't want to be impolite. He took it, and find that it was a bit heavy.

He unwrapped it carefully, despite Jack's egging, and saw a scrap-book like thing. He smiled politely again, thinking that he had no pictures to fill it with.

"Look inside."

He opened the front flap, and stared.

There were snapshots of the team. Owen, sitting at his desk, sipping a cup of coffee while looking at the computer screen in front of him. Toshiko, holding up a cup of coffee like a sword of honor as she flipped through papers. Gwen gripping the coffee cup with both hands and drinking it enthusiastically. And then there was Jack, who had three empty coffee cups on his desk, drinking another while in the other hand he held a gun that was pointing at the ceiling.

And, of course, there had to be one of Myfanwy. She was sitting on Jack's desk and had her beak stuck in the coffee experimentally.

They were right beside each other neatly but still together. Above it was the writing, in red letters, "King Ianto's Coffee Club." Tears came to his eyes.

"Tosh helped by viewing all of them on the CCTV, and then taking screenshots and putting them in the scrapbook. And, if you show it to anyone else, they'll think Myfanwy was photoshopped, so no danger." Gwen said, smiling. "Turn to the second page."

The second page was of the whole team together, Ianto in front. They were all leaning against each other, glad and smiling. Across the top of the picture was in bold blue words were: "You Have Friends!." Next to it was a little icon of them together, the picture resized dramatically.

"Tosh did the icon. It was based off the "You Have Mail!" pop-up on the computer. But I bought the scrapbook!" Gwen added.

Ianto smiled, and then she hugged him, Tosh joining in. Hesitantly he put his arm around their backs, but he was happy. He saw Jack wink at him, letting him know he'd have another, more exciting, present waiting for him when the others went home.

"And...Jack." Gwen said, handing him a small parcel.

When Jack ripped open the paper more enthusiastically than all of them, he grinned widely.

"It was either that or porn. I figured this one wouldn't get me fired."

"Well, there's always next Christmas, too." Jack said cheekily, smiling.

It was the DVD, Pirates Of The Caribbean.

"Well, one Jack carries a jar of dirt, the other a jar of hand." Owen said dryly. They all laughed.

And in the end, Myfanwy got (unwrapped, Gwen hoped she wouldn't mind) frozen mice. Myfanwy loved it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!