The Morning After
The first thing she noticed when she woke up was the taste, like a chorus line full of weevils, drunken weevils, drunken weevils wearing high heels had gone through her mouth after a month in the sewers. The same drunken weevils had then taken the heels off and were now rampaging through her skull playing a psychotic game of whack a mole with her brain. She could tell by the real moles that seemed to be running around under her eyelids. Slowly she tried to get her bearings, remember how she ended up in this situation. Last night… what had happened last night? She remembered an argument with Rhys and then convincing Jack and Ianto to come out drinking with her…after that it got a little blurry, ok, a lot blurry.
As she slowly opened her eyes something else became apparent. She was naked. Ok, that wasn't a big deal, though usually if she got legless she ended up falling into bed with her clothes on but maybe Rhys helped her…or… oh no, no, no, please don't let it be Jack and or Ianto who put her to bed. Then she realized that she wasn't alone in the bed. She was actually emphatically not alone in the bed, and there was warm, naked skin on either side of her. The only thing she could see through her sticky eyelids was a dim light as she looked up at the ceiling, the ceiling with the hole in it and the thin light coming through. She didn't dare look either left or right, instead she concentrated through the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach on what else she could sense. Naked bodies, two of them, one to either side, both very obviously male and waking up. Between that and the familiar smell, that exotic scent that he always blamed on 51st Century pheromones and not some unusual aftershave that told her that she had in fact awakened somewhere between her fondest dream and her worst nightmare.
"Morning sleepy head," Jack Harkness said from the place on her right in the bed as he leaned over and captured her lips in a kiss that was everything and more than she had ever imagined. He released her, head spinning and breath still trying to remember which way to her lungs when she felt another hand under her chin, turning her toward the other occupant of the bed. Like Jack, Ianto smiled at her, and then kissed away the few remaining brain cells left from Jack's assault. Unlike Jack, she had never really consciously thought about what kissing Ianto would be like, or only absently, when she was wondering about him and Jack. While she was trying to get her thoughts back in order, Jack leaned over her and captured Ianto's lips, one hand on her chest, the other cupping the younger man's chin while she watched from far closer than she had ever been to any two other people kissing.
"So, beautiful, you up for another round?" he asked looking down at her. Ianto had leaned back and was just watching as her eyes went completely round and the noise in her head turned back up a notch. Jack just shrugged, completely unfazed as usual. "If not, then Ianto can show you where the spare tooth brush is." He pulled himself out of bed, completely and unselfconsciously naked. Gwen tried to concentrate on his face, really she did, but Jack was very well put together, and when she cast a sidewise glance at Ianto he was looking too, though he didn't seem to care if Jack knew. He was probably used to it. "Then we will leave you to fend for yourself. Ianto, join me in the shower when you get her set up. I suppose we'll just have to amuse ourselves together this time."
Gwen was still trying to process his words and scanning in vain for memories from the night before, when Ianto got out of the bed. He was as naked and as obviously comfortable here as Jack was, something that in spite of catching the two of them in the hot house she would never have imagined. Also like Jack she was trying not to look, without closing her eyes and being obvious about it. She couldn't help comparing the two, Jack with his slightly gold skin and sparse body hair, with Ianto, paler, slightly narrower in the shoulders and chest but with narrow hips, and… She grabbed hold of those thoughts right quick. Apparently she had spent last night getting to know the two of them far better than any recently married woman ought to and the last thing she really needed was to think about that more than necessary. Not without paracetamol, and a shower, and coffee, lots of coffee.
"Here's that toothbrush I'm sure you'll be wanting," Ianto said with a smile. "Thought you might need these as well," he added a couple of tablets that looked exactly like what she wished for, and a glass of water. He hadn't bothered to put on any clothes either though he had a towel over his shoulder and his kit in his hand. "Need anything else? Only if you haven't changed your mind, I ought to get downstairs. If I want to be presentable when everyone else gets here, well, you know what Jack can be like, now don't you?" he said with a sly wink before climbing up the ladder leaving her alone in the well rumpled bed.
By the time the other two joined her, Gwen had managed to find most of her clothes from last night. She wasn't exactly sure she ever wanted to remember exactly how her bra ended up hanging from that strange alien artefact on the shelf behind Jack's desk or why her shoes had been on two different levels of the hub. She hadn't found her knickers or her tights and where they were, not to mention how they got there, was a memory she was completely sure she didn't actually wanted back. After a quick shower and a change of clothes from her locker, not to mention the use of the toothbrush and the headache pills, she almost felt like a human being, or at least as good as Janet the weevil.
Gwen was sitting at her desk, trying to probe last night's memories carefully, rather the way you poke a sore tooth praying that it would stop hurting and you could avoid the dentist, when the two men came up from below. Jack flashed her a grin, with one arm wrapped around Ianto's waist as they came onto the floor. "You should have joined us, especially now that you know what you're missing. There's always room for one more," he said, flashing her a grin that was bright enough to nudge the edge of her momentarily quiescent hangover. Ianto just smiled gently before patting Jack's arm and heading for the coffee machine to start the life blood of Torchwood flowing.
She might have drifted off for a moment, because the next thing she knew, Ianto was standing next to her with a cup of his own heaven in a mug. "I made it just a bit extra strong and sweet, not up to Jack's level mind but I thought, with the extra exercise, and the lack of sleep, you might need a bit more of a boost this morning. There's a bit of that chocolate syrup you like in as well." His smile seemed normal, Ianto had always managed to do exactly what was needed and he had a sixth sense where coffee was concerned, but she couldn't decide if his smile was not just that much wider than yesterday. She couldn't figure it out, apparently she had slept with his lover, well actually with both of them, together and or separately, and rather than being in a jealous snit, he was being kind to her. Gwen wondered what was going on behind those eyes, was he thinking that she was going to join them now or that she had got it out of her system? What had she said last night? What had she said? Gwen looked away to the screen in front of her with a murmured word of thanks and pretended to read her screen while she thought about how she was going to straighten this all out, and more important, what was she going to say to Rhys?
The day dragged long and slow, or at least for Gwen Cooper Williams it did. There was only one call and Jack took Tosh with him. Owen spent the time dissecting an alien that had fallen through the Rift dead the day before that Jack had brought in after he had left. He was happily cutting away, singing off key to some obnoxious music played at a volume that was enough to set her teeth on edge. Ianto was around, occasionally stopping at her desk with a solicitous question about how she felt and fresh coffee. She was actually so desperate to take her mind of things that she resorted to Ianto's sort program, the one that combed incoming police reports for mentions of unusual activity, but even that wasn't enough to keep her focused. When Jack returned with Tosh and the new piece of alien tech, he dropped a gentle hand on her shoulder that almost sent her through the ceiling of the hub. He just gave her a smile and a wink and returned to his office, calling Ianto to him as he went.
It wasn't that Jack was being more familiar than usual, she thought as she looked through the glass window of his office. He had always been quick with a hand on the back or an arm around the shoulder. She could see him now, he and Ianto were talking, Ianto perched on Jack's desk in front of him while Jack leaned back in the old wooden office chair that no one had been able to convince him to change. While he had been gone, Gwen had briefly thought about using his new office but had found herself unable to be comfortable in there, and Ianto had a way of looking at her when she had needed to use it as if she was borrowing his toothbrush or something equally as intimate. She didn't suppose intimacy was an issue now, with Jack or Ianto. The question was, what now?
The worst thing about it was that she didn't remember a single thing. It was probably the most amazing and naughty sexual experience of her entire life if that kiss was any indication, and she couldn't remember a single thing. Considering, she wasn't sure she wanted to. If she could remember, how would she go back? No, on the whole she was content with her life, with Rhys, even when he drove her completely barmy, he was there, firm and stable. Oh Jack was a great fantasy, but he wasn't for every day, not for her. Maybe for Ianto, the two of them seemed so comfortable together, so steady. Gwen wondered why she had never seen it before. Like Rhys, Ianto seemed to always know just what Jack needed, even before he did. Of course she didn't know how her part in last nights little drama would effect that relationship, if relationship it was. After all, it wasn't like Jack was going to settle down, she was proof of that. She was too confused to think straight. Part of her wanted to go to Jack and talk about it but she was too embarrassed, certain that Jack would offer a complete repeat performance, or at least illustrations. At least she would get a suggestive comment or two and possibly a lecture on labels. No, that wouldn't work at all.
By the time she had resolved to talk to Ianto, Jack leaned out of his office and told everyone they could go home since it looked to be a quiet evening. Tosh and Owen were packed up and heading out the door when she slipped up into the tourist office to talk to him. She found Ianto just putting down the telephone with a pile of take away menus in front of him. "Just about to order some take away for Jack and I, will you be joining us?" he asked her, ever polite and helpful.
"I…no, thank you…uh," she stuttered out, still working out what she wanted to say. Ianto didn't say anything, just shuffled the menus again and waited for her to speak.
"About last night…" she started, lamely not really knowing what to say. Ianto nodded, waiting for her to continue. "I don't…I was really…"
"Nothing happened," he said quietly.
"That's really sweet of you, but the problem is I," she tried again.
"No, I mean it Gwen," Ianto said, looking her straight in the eye. "Nothing happened. You were completely pissed last night, and regardless of what you obviously think of Jack and I, we wouldn't take advantage of a friend like that." His words went through her like lightning. Nothing happened, but something had happened, hadn't it?
"They why did you let me think…" she started again, confusion was trying to turn to anger but relief that she hadn't done something completely stupid was fighting with the adrenaline. "Wait, how do you know, weren't you and Jack…" she trailed off, realizing that it was a completely daft question. Ianto was never good for more than a pint or two when they went out and Jack rarely drank anything but water, especially when out. But surely she remembered…actually she didn't remember much. Ianto just looked at her, waiting for her admittedly still sluggish brain to catch up.
"What do you remember, exactly?" he asked, his voice carefully neutral.
"Rhys and I had a fight. It was over nothing really, well not nothing but, yeah, actually it was nothing. He was on the phone with one of his mates, probably Banana, he has the common sense of a squirrel and the attention span, but he's Rhys' mate and I'm used to it. I was trying to sort some dinner since we missed lunch, and they were talking about some woman, about her…" she blushed and motioned toward her own chest. This was all so embarrassing but at least it wasn't Jack. Ianto merely nodded to indicate he was listening, though he probably heard all of this last night for all she knew. "I didn't really mean to start anything; I just commented that I hoped he didn't talk about me like that when I wasn't around."
"And Rhys, being Rhys, stuck his foot in his gob all the way to the thigh?" Ianto suggested lightly.
"Yeah, and I know he didn't mean anything by it, at least I do now. He said of course not, I didn't have to be hot, I was a married woman." Ianto had the good grace to wince. "I didn't tell you any of that last night?"
"No," he said. Then after a moment he continued. "You came blazing in here last night, angry at Rhys. Jack and I were the only ones here, and you wanted us both to come out with you." It was Gwen's turn to nod. She remembered coming in furious and determined she was going to go out and prove that she was still an attractive woman to Rhys and to herself. Rhys had accidentally played on the kind of things that had been worrying her for some months, feeling like she was becoming settled, an old married woman. She knew, or thought she knew that Jack at least found her attractive and she was determined to prove something. She had never actually thought about Ianto, or how the two of them would feel about it. Ianto was still looking at her and suddenly she knew exactly why she had woken up naked between the two of them.
"I'm sorry," she said, the blush rising even more than when she woke up. "I didn't think, I suppose, I just…"
"Gwen, you've always made assumptions about Jack and I, ever since you found out we were…seeing each other."
"I don't," she started, but then she stopped. She did. When she woke up this morning, she had fallen for their game precisely because it was the kind of thing she expected of them.
"We aren't like you and Rhys, we'll never have the house and white fence. It's not in us, either of us. We're both too far gone for a normal life, too broken. But we have each other, and it's what we want. But neither are we as casual as you seem to think. You're important to Jack, because you represent everything we are fighting for, you remind us all what it is easy to forget, that life goes on. But last night you wanted to prove something to yourself and you were using us to do it."
"I didn't," she said, but even as she said it she knew she was wrong. She was as wrong as he was right. Gwen wanted to prove that she was still attractive, not just to herself but to the whole world, and Jack was a whole lot of validation wrapped up in one very sexy package, and so in a more subtle way was Ianto. The two of them, in a dance club with her, said to everyone that she could still get the attention that she needed, that she was still desirable. "Oh, Ianto, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't mean…I just wanted to feel beautiful, to show myself that I wasn't ready for packing it in. I suppose I never considered what it would be like… and then I was drinking, I didn't really want to think about what I was doing. Did I embarrass myself too badly, or you?"
"Weeelll, I don't think that anything embarrasses Jack, actually, not often anyway. I suppose having a beautiful woman all over us could be seen as a coup as well." He leaned forward a bit towards her. "I wouldn't take Rhys to that dance club over off St Mary's for a while though."
"Ah no, what did I…do I want to know?" Before Ianto could answer the hidden door opened behind her.
Jack looked at Ianto, and the younger man nodded once, all that needed saying in one look. Then her captain moved to Gwen. He kissed her gently on the forehead, clearly forgiving her for whatever it was she had done last night. She had learned her lesson, more than one actually, now what she needed to do was sort things out. "Go home to Rhys, Gwen, he's waiting for you." She didn't ask how he knew, instead she grabbed the bag that Jack had brought up with him. He had one arm around Ianto and she hugged them together and turned to head out the door. Before she could get out the door, Ianto called her name.
"Gwen, if we ever do decide to let someone come and play, you'll be the first to know."