I Own No One In Torchwood, Or The Amasing Idea Of It. I'm Just Borrowing Them.
Beted by wingedteen.
Because they were Torchwood.
Gwen looked up at James Harper. He smiled back down at her, green eyes never having changed from when she'd first met him. At first she'd been young enough to claim he was an imaginary friend when he slipped out as part of a question, story, or statement. She took the idea from the man himself. When she was too old for an 'imaginary friend', she'd learnt not to mention him. At eighteen he gave her the job he'd promised he'd been keeping for her. Not a day earlier was one of his conditions. He'd told her that when she'd tried to follow him back.
Around the same time as she'd begun working, James had also recruited a few others. Although they had never met, hell, never seen each other before, they got along famously well. And they had done it very quickly. Usually, there was about a week of awkwardness to contend with. There had more like an awkward five minutes. James didn't seem to think this was strange when they all went out for drinks and got smashed on the first week. In fact, he'd come along.
Tosh was lovely. Cute and the most tech-savvy person Gwen had ever met. When it was important, Tosh could be professional, but get her to relax over pizza, and she could have everyone in stiches if she wanted to. She also had a crush on Owen, which was obvious to everyone, except those in most need to know about it. Gwen, James and Ianto had tried everything short of locking them in a cupboard together to get them to realise it. Including a few games of spin the bottle. But this had given less than satisfactory results, and the strategy had been dumped after Tosh didn't talk to Owen for a week.
Owen was alright looking, she supposed. If James hadn't stolen him, she had no doubt that he'd be one of the leading doctors in the world. He was full of sarcastic humour, directed on everyone, but he never made anything seriously harmful. However, if someone so much as breathed wrong around them (and he was the one who would know), he would immediately defend them. He was protective of them all, especially tosh. That passed no-one (but the receiver of this affection) by.
Ianto was a miracle worker with coffee. He hadn't even asked Gwen what she took her coffee as before plonking one on her desk the first day. She had been surprised at the heaven contained in the cup. But more than that, he was often the practical man in it all. When everyone else was stuffing with their computers because they weren't working, he was polishing off his hand-written report. Or looking at the fine print that was needed. Hell, he went through everyone else's reports for grammar and spelling mistakes. Everyone was grateful about it, but they still tried to keep the mistakes to a minimum.
James, though, was strange. Even though they'd all known him since they were small, and knew he couldn't die (by now, Gwen saw him die several times a week), they knew next to nothing about him. He seemed to love having them all around, and yet, at the same time, morning a loss that none of them could get out of him. They had no idea what to say or think.
At one point, when Gwen had been particularly angry, and had slammed a door, he'd yelled out "I once had a boyfriend who did that!" And laughed at the inside joke that no-one else in the team understood.
Or, sometimes, when Gwen criticised anything of his, he'd mutter something about that being so Welsh, or something akin to it. No one understood his inside jokes, that only he seemed to be in on.
Still, no one knew anything about Captain James Harper, except that they were ninety percent sure that he wasn't related to Owen. They hadn't been able to find him on up to a twelfth generation search.
It wasn't until James left that pieces of the puzzle that they thought was complete began to appear. When he'd come back, he hadn't been surprised to find Gwen in charge, and them ignoring him. Gwen actually thought he'd muttered this again? But considering she was on the other side of the room, she doubted it. He'd just walked into the Hub with them ignoring him, nodded, leaned back against the wall to his office, and remarked that they'd adapted well. He watched them giving him the cold shoulder for five minutes before sighing.
"You left us, Jack!" Gwen screamed. That had gotten to him. He'd rocked forward on to his feet, stood completely strait and stared at her for a moment, before disappearing into his office for the rest of the day. No one knew why he'd left, though, and for the life of her, Gwen couldn't begin to contemplate why she'd called him Jack. Not even when the man himself was asking about it.
Naturally, she'd evaded his question and responded with the question of why he wanted to know. He'd left them, after all. She'd had to handle the organisation, and evading was a very good tactic that she found worked. One of the best ways of doing this was turning the conversation to the other person. She still didn't know anything about him, she reminded him, and he knew everything about her. Hell, he probably knew more about her then she did.
He'd looked surprised and amused at the last comment, and bided her a good night.
The next day, she'd hugged Owen, blabbering some non-sense about him being shot, and she was so happy to see him. She'd actually continued for five minutes, until she'd been able to wrestle logic back. Owen wasn't dead. The only person who could come back to life was James. However happy she was to see Owen alive, she still had no idea why she thought he was dead.
James hadn't interfered until the middle of the day when she was making a remark that she was glad he wasn't the walking dead. James had raced down the stairs to his office, and pulled her away from Owen while she was in the middle of pointing out he could heal small scratches and the like now.
James had kept her with him the whole day, asking if she remembered anything that had never happened to her. It was subtle, at first, him asking how her life was, and if she had a boyfriend. When he'd asked her straight out, she'd told him to stop being so stupid. Why would she remember things that had never happened to her? He'd been slightly taken-back by this comment. He waited until the others had left a for good half hour before allowing her to leave as well. His parting comment was if anything strange happened, he wanted to know about it.
"Like what?" she'd thrown behind her as she left. "Being impregnated with an alien baby on my wedding day?"
The cog door had closed before she could see James' stunned face.
A week later, she was running back to the hub at full pelt, having this feeling that something horrible had gone wrong. She had her gun in hand, ready to shoot whatever was threatening the team.
Tosh and Owen turned to her in surprise, pizza in hand, and their laughter dying after taking one look at her. Gwen dropped the gun and sank to the floor, shivering, staring at Owen and Tosh.
"Oh, god, you're alive. I can't believe it, you're alive. Tosh, oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen Owen, oh god…"
Gwen knew she was babbling, but she wasn't able to stop herself. She wasn't even sure why exactly she was babbling. Owen and Tosh were never dead, and she had nothing to be sorry for. Nothing at all.
When she was enveloped in a warm embrace, she allowed herself to be taken up to James' office, where she cried for absolutely no reason at all. James didn't ask for a reason. Perhaps he knew she couldn't give him one. But she soaked his shirt all the same, whether from tears of grief or relief, she couldn't tell. Maybe both.
When she'd cried herself dry, James didn't ask what was wrong. Instead, he grabbed her shoulders, and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Gwen, you need to listen to me. Tosh and Owen are safe. They're perfectly fine. No gunshot wounds, no being vaporized, no walking-dead. They're whole, and well."
Gwen blinked and nodded, pulling away from him, and looking down at Tosh and Owen who had mostly gone back to their happy chatter. They kept shooting looks up at James' office. She took a shuddering breath.
"James, what's happening to me?" James looked up at her, and she could see the worry, and relief mixed in his eyes. The worry she could understand, but the relief was something else. Was he relieved she'd stopped crying?
"I don't know Gwen. I don't know."
Three weeks later, she'd raced into a building that she knew Ianto was hunting a weevil in, and had hugged him as hard as she could, tears streaming. He'd almost fallen at the contact, but had quickly recovered. He'd placed his arms around Gwen, and rubbed her back, soothingly.
"Breath Gwen. Just breath." He'd murmered. She had no idea what it was about those words that made it worse. Gwen had cried and screamed, and yelled something about that being the problem- that was why he'd died- and she'd refused to let go of him, even when the Weevil they were hunting ran straight past.
Thankfully James turned up soon after, having caught the Weevil. Carefuly, he'd pried her hands from Ianto's body, and as she seemed devistated when the hold was gone, pulled her to him. She'd hugged him like he was the only other person alive.
Gwen had noticed all of this through a daze. The next thing she knew, she was curled up on the couch, sobbing into his shoulder. She held on a little longer, before pulling away, looking at him.
"Still no memories?" James asked. Gwen shook her head at him. He'd nodded, smiled and sent her home, despite her begging that she needed some kind of human contact.
And a month later, Gwen remembered. She'd gone to sleep with a headache, and a building pressure behind her eyes. When she'd woken, at exactly twelve, she'd raced to the hub. She was fairly sure no one else would be there. After all, she only knew one person who lived there.
"Jack? Jack?" she called around her work place. Eventually he ran down the stairs, greatcoat flapping behind him. He didn't stop has he ran into Gwen, hugging her as tight as he could. He stood back, and Gwen could feel the happiness that radiated from him.
"Welcome back, Gwen." He smiled at her. She grinned back, and all at once, the old feelings that went beyond the relationship of boss and employer, or even friends, swept back though her. The memory of how to read him better than the others, the knowledge that Jack had travelled though time, came from the 51st century, and his old boyfriend (or whatever he was), John Heart came crashing though her mind. Understanding of why she'd been crying over Ianto, Tosh and Owen came into her head to join the party. Everything she'd learnt the first time around. She smiled through the tears, because the good did out-weigh the bad.
"It's good to be home."
"Maybe you didn't realise. You can beat, shoot, threaten and even poison us and we'll keep coming back. Stronger every time."
Jack couldn't believe how true those words had been. They'd come back. His team. Torchwood. The name had never really fit to any other group he'd put together.
He hadn't been able to believe it when he'd stumbled across Ianto out in the middle of no-where. Of course, Ianto had been nine at the time, so Jack couldn't very well ask him to join Torchwood then and there. But he'd forged a strong friendship, and opened Ianto's eyes. He promised Ianto a job if he ever needed one.
Then he'd disappeared, looking for the others. He'd abandoned his current team, although they weren't really his team, after all. He was out finding them.
He'd found Tosh, sitting alone in a library, and given her some of the alien tech that she'd loved before. One of her own gadgets. He'd kept it out of anyone else's hands, because no one else could do programming like her. Hell, the last person he'd allowed to fiddle with the system, had very nearly crashed the near perfect one Tosh had created. Like Ianto, he'd given her a promise.
He'd found Owen next, in a school yard, living it up with the ladies. Talked to him about how different organisms worked. Gave him a few bits and pieces once Owen trusted him enough. He was cheered to see Owen happy. In his past life Owen had been grieving his fiancé, and had resented Torchwood for the reason he'd gotten in. Jack gave him the option all the same.
Gwen had been different, though. He hadn't found her.
He'd been standing on top of some building, trying to decide where to look for her. She wasn't very predictable, after all. She'd run up and given him a hug, before he even knew she was there. He didn't need to open her eyes to what was out there. They were already open. Or still open, he wasn't sure. He'd given her the same promise as everyone else. But she was the one he began to train before her eighteenth. If he disappeared, he wanted to have the team in the best hands possible, and he knew she'd take over. He taught her to use a gun when she was eleven, and gave her information to study. He'd give her scenario, just to see what she'd do.
He refused to allow any of them to work before their eighteenth birthday. He'd told Gwen, not a day before, and had ended having to refine it to not a year, month, hour, day or any other measurement of time before.
The team that he'd abandoned (not his team) had crawled back to him, crying pitifully. He hated it. He remembered coming back to Gwen, Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and them ignoring him for going off. He wanted them to do that. They needed to be able to cope on their own. And this sad excuse for a team couldn't.
"We'll keep coming back. Stronger every time." Gwen had said. Jack was now sure her words were true. He also knew they would be there for the hardest times. This group, this team would be the ones battered, bruised and bloodied, but they were the best, and they would keep coming back.
Because they were Torchwood.