A/N: Hello all! So, this is my first Torchwood fanfiction, and I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave a comment or review.
It was well after midnight when her mobile rang. Rhys was snoring next to her and Gwen was doing what she always did late at night-watching the moonlight drift across the wall opposite the bed. She glanced over at Rhys, but he was sound asleep. She longed for the night that he would touch her, brush his fingers against her skin, tell her that he loved her. She longed for him to hold her in the darkness and drive away the demons. Suddenly she realized that it wasn't just Rhys she wanted…it was anyone.
The soft vibration of her mobile interrupted this disturbing train of thought.
Jack. It was a short message that read come to the Hub! New case.
She was pulling on her cloths before the light on her cell phone faded into blackness.
…
" Third one this week." Tosh pronounced, gesturing to the plasma screen. A photograph of a young girl was displayed there, everything but her pale face covered in a white sheet. " Sucked dry."
" Vampire aliens?" Gwen asked, hardly surprised given what they dealt with on a regular basis. Jack gave a dark look towards the screen.
" They're ancient, horrible creatures. They suck the blood of virgins, targeting girls between the ages of nine and thirteen." Jack looked disgusted and Gwen tried to hide her anger. During her time as a police officer, she had seen and heard about some awful things: rape and mutilation, child abuse and neglect, torture. But this strange sadism rattled her to the bone.
" This is the latest victim. Susie Ranard, age eleven." Tosh informed them, looking mournful. " She went missing after school yesterday, found this morning in the woods near her house outside Cardiff."
" Sucked dry. God." Gwen observed the girl's pale features and imagined what she must have been like during life-jubilant, happy, like any other worriless tween. Gwen tried to think back to when she was that age. It scared her a little that she couldn't remember much-mostly trying to act cool and grownup with her friends and bouncing around to awful pop music. She glanced at Jack and wondered if he recalled being eleven. Probably not. His whole childhood was most likely lost in a jumble of time and space.
" Gwen, with me. We're going to go check the woods where she was found, see if we can find anything." He followed this with the usual " Gwen, with me."
As she followed him out of the Hub, Gwen recalled how Jack had once said to her you'll never get tired of following me. She jogged after him and realized this to be true.
…
The woods outside of Cardiff were cold and dreary in the October mist. An icy fog hovered over the dark trees, casting a chill even inside the SUV. The crime scene was swarming with police officers and forensic investigators. The blue and red lights flashed against the fog, creating an even creepier atmosphere.
Susie Ranards was lying on a bed of pine needles, paler than ice and dead as stone. There were two large holes piercing the side of her neck. A small trail of blood ran across the white skin, a sickening comparison. A light mist settled on their dark-colored coats. A bird cried loudly through the forest and its haunting cry echoed off the trees, sending a shiver down Gwen's spine. She fought the urge to grab Jack's arm.
Stop it, Gwen. What's up with you lately? She quickly shook it off and paced around the crime scene.
" Defiantly vampires." Jack pronounced softly. Another chill danced down Gwen's spine and gooseflesh pricked across her arms. It was like the stuff of nightmares, those scary stories you were told as a child and never forgot your whole life.
" Where are they?" She asked. Jack stood, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
" I don't know."
Somehow, that scared her worse than if Jack had given her an exact location. The thought that such violent and bloodthirsty creatures were loose in Cardiff was a terrifying thought. Even more so was the idea that no one else knew but the precious few at Torchwood.
As Gwen buckled her seatbelt in the passenger seat of the SUV, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. What would it be like to spend your entire life doing this? Discovering new monsters living among humans? She wondered how Jack lived with it.
" Gwen, are you alright?" Jack inquired from the driver's side. He looked worried.
" I'm fine." Gwen lied. " Perfectly fine."
She wasn't.
…
When she arrived at the flat just before midnight, Rhys was watching football on the tele and drinking beer. He glanced up when she walked in, but quickly turned his eyes back to the TV. Gwen took a seat next to him.
" Rhys, do you believe in vampires?" She asked. Rhys glanced over, clearly surprised.
" Vampires? No, of course not." He laughed, and to Gwen it didn't seem like the sporting, jolly chuckle he'd once had. It was almost cruel and demeaning. Gwen reminded herself that Rhys wasn't a mean man,that he was a good friend and loyal husband and that's why they had gotten married. Because he loved her.
" What if they weren't real?" She theorized. Rhys gave her a strange, almost annoyed look.
" What's up with you, Gwen? You never used to believe in all that superstitious stuff until you joined that special ops team." Rhys seemed almost angry with her. " What the hell do you do all day? Chase ghosts?"
Gwen tried not to act as hurt and betrayed as she felt.
" Something like that."
" Well, you're never home anymore. It's like you're not even my wife!"
" I have a job, Rhys." Gwen protested.
" SO DO I!" Rhys's voices rose to an angry pitch.
" Not like mine." Gwen regretted the words as soon as she had said them. Rhys's face flushed.
" It's all about you and your stupid job, isn't it? Maybe we never should have gotten married in the first place. We're never together anyway."
Rhys let out an angry breath and rose from the sofa. He walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. Whether it was accidently or on purpose, the door slammed shut, efficiently halting their semi-argument. Gwen felt tears well in her eyes and wondered how exactly things had spiraled so out of control.
She felt sickened and confused. It was almost one in the morning, and she felt like she was suffocating inside the tiny flat. So she went the only other place she knew-Torchwood.
Inside the Hub, she felt a strange sense of calm wash over her. This was a place that she knew well, and it brought peace to her heart to be there. However, this sudden cheer lasted only a few seconds before she remembered her fight with Rhys and the cruel words they had tossed at each other.
The light in Jack's office was still on, and Gwen felt a sense of relief when she saw it.
Jack is the only person I can trust right now, she thought. I should be able to trust Rhys too.
But she couldn't. Because she and Rhys were fighting and he didn't trust her and she was a liar. Very well. She would lie her way to forever if it meant keeping her place here at Torchwood.
" Jack." She said softly. He glanced up at the sound of her voice, clearly surprised to see her there at such a late our.
" Gwen! What are you doing here?"
She paused inside the doorframe and crossed her arms. This moment wasn't exactly going as planned, and she was trying to speak but something heavy blocked her throat.
"Rhys and I had a fight and I left and-" She couldn't speak for the sudden tears that filled her eyes and the way that her throat stuck together. Jack was by her side in a flash, one arm around her shoulders. Every hidden feeling that Gwen had stored away for so long washed over her and she collapsed to the floor.
" Shhh." Jack sat down next to her and she felt his arms go around her. " Shh, it's okay."
Gwen buried her face in Jack's shirtfront, her fingers curling into the fabric.
" It's not okay, Jack. Rhys hates me." She sobbed, and she could feel her heart breaking. " He hates me."
" No." Jack whispered. " No one could hate you, Gwen."
She was leaning against him now, and Jack held her for a long time. Gwen found herself struggling to remember the last time that anyone had held her like that. Certainly not Rhys, and that broke her heart. He was her husband, wasn't he supposed to love her forever and all that crap?
" Oh, God, Jack." She slid her arms around his waist and held him tightly. Gwen felt at this moment that Jack Harkness was the only thing keeping her from going insane. Like a lost boat bobbing a rough sea, he was the unlikely anchor that held her fast. The thought comforted her.
" I should go." Gwen said regretfully. She didn't want to go, and she made no effort to move.
" No." Jack held her tighter. " No, Gwen, don't go."
She was grateful for any excuse to stay. She would have gladly stayed like this forever, curled against Jack on the floor of the office. There was something simple and easy about their relationship, something she had never felt with Rhys.
" Come to bed with me."
" What?" Gwen squawked. " No! I'm not sleeping with you, Jack." Not tonight, anyways.
" Shh, it's okay." Jack stood, pulling Gwen with him. " I promise I won't try anything. You have to sleep somewhere, and I never sleep anyway…"
Gwen allowed Jack to lead her through the Hub and into his tiny bedroom. The bed was neatly made, and judging by the looks of it, it hadn't been slept in for several nights. Gwen slowly unlaced her sneakers and shucked them off, then lay down miserably. Jack turned to go, but Gwen caught his hand.
" Please, just stay with me." She knew that with her tearstreaked face, watery eyes and wavering voice, she sounded and looked desperate and pathetic. She didn't care. Gwen longed for someone, anyone, to hold her and tell her that they loved her. Her heart ached with desire, and she knew that she didn't want to be alone tonight.
" Okay." Jack lay down next to her and Gwen curled against his chest.
" I'm really sorry about this, Jack. I just needed to get away."
He rubbed one hand up and down her arm.
" Away from Rhys, you mean."
" Yes." Gwen admitted. She felt like a slutty coward, running away from Rhys and straight into Jack's arms. But Rhys had made it clear that he was deeply unhappy with her work at Torchwood. And she loved her job more than she loved him right now.
Gwen laid her head on Jack's shoulder and inhaled deeply. She tried to memorize every single minute detail of this moment so that in a few days, when she was back in Rhys' bed and he was snoring instead of holding her and she was watching moonlight dance across the wall, she could remember this precious time.
" God, Jack. What am I doing?"
" You're lonely, Gwen. You've always been lonely." He muttered. Gwen curled into his arms and Jack held her, as if he somehow knew the pain he felt.
That night, for the first time in a long time, Gwen Cooper slept soundly.
A/N: Sorry for the crap ending, but it's a tad late here-like, one in the morning late-and I must sleep! So please review and I'm sorry for making Rhys so mean in this one. I think he's a nice guy in the show, but I think Gwen and Jack belong together. XD