Title: Together
Summary: AU where Tosh survives Exit Wound. Jack has left the planet, Gwen is in hiding, and Tosh is back in UNIT's hands after the 456 incident. Tosh and Gwen meet up to talk about the old days and comfort each other.
Rating: T for language and talk of death
Word Count: 1357
Other Chapters: No.
Disclaimer: The British Broadcasting Corporation owns Torchwood and all related characters, settings, and trademarks. I do not profit in any way from this material.
Pairings: Mentions of Gwen/Rhys
Contains: friendship fic, universe alteration so that a canonically dead character lives, hurt/comfort
Warnings: mentions of major character death

Tosh's face lit up when she saw Anwen. She'd never seen her in person before. Gwen and Tosh weren't technically allowed to see each other, under any circumstances. The British government didn't want anyone who found one of them to be led right the other one in the process. Gwen had half expected Tosh to get cold feet today. She'd been fully prepared to spend two hours in a dodgy café, watching the rain come down outside and trying to keep her daughter from crying., then leave feeling bitter about the wasted holiday She wouldn't have blamed Tosh for not showing. She'd have had good reasons not to. Something could have come up at work, or Tosh could have just decided that it wasn't worth the risk. If they were caught, Gwen would be sent home with a reprimand and tightened security, but there was no telling what UNIT would do to Tosh. They'd decided that it would be a waste to throw her back into a cell, but they certainly hadn't honoured Jack's promise to let her go after five years. They'd set Gwen up with a nice house in the country and a midwife. They'd thrown Tosh into a tiny little London flat and put her to work the next day. Jack had vanished after Ianto's funeral, and he'd left Gwen and Tosh's fates in UNIT's hands. Gwen wondered if he didn't knowhow awful that had been for both of them, or if he just didn't care.

They had to hug from the side because Gwen had her baby on her hip, but Tosh squeezed Gwen as if she never wanted to let go, and Gwen tried to communicate the same need to Tosh with one arm. Gwen hadn't seen Tosh's face in over a year. Tosh had seen hers. They'd been communicating through the contact lenses. A month or so into their separation, Tosh had remembered that Gwen had them and hacked them all the way from London, just to make contact with her. Gwen had put them in for a bit of fun with Rhys one night and found text from Tosh frozen in place, listing a time and date and begging Gwen for a chat. They'd made a point of catching up at least once a week, after that. Gwen would sit in front of a mirror, and Tosh would type. It had been some of Gwen's only contact with someone outside of her family, and she was grateful for it, but it had still just been text. It was a weight of Gwen's chest to be able to see Tosh here, and even more of one to be able to touch her. She and Tosh had never been close, compared to both of their relationships with the boys, but they'd always loved each other and now that they were the last two members of Torchwood on Earth, it was getting more difficult by the day to survive without each other.

They exchanged pleasantries like old friends who hadn't seen each in other ages for stupid reasons. Gwen told Tosh that she looked good with her hair short, Tosh cooed over Gwen's baby, made a few remarks about how she couldn't believe Gwen was a mother now, and even attempted to hold Anwen for a minute before Gwen had to take her back and apologize because Anwen didn't like strangers. They even complained about the rain a little bit. Their drinks had arrived by the time Gwen actually admitted what she'd been thinking for months now.

"I miss it," she said. "I miss us. A lot."

Tosh nodded sadly. "Tell me about it."

Gwen sighed. "I've been going mad, all locked up, playing house out in the country, never seeing anyone... You've at least got UNIT—"

"UNIT has me," Tosh said quickly. "And it's not remotely the same. It'll never replace what we lost." Tosh sighed too. It sounded broken, and she looked a little bit disgusted. "I see Martha once a month or so, for lunch. That's it. We've in different departments and half the time she's not even in the building during the work day, she's off at mission sites. I go to work, I sit at a desk and hack into computer systems for eight hours a day and no one talks to me, I go home, I watch television and no one talks to me..." She bit her lip for a second. "Losing Owen and Ianto was awful, and part of me didn't want to go on after it happened. Either time. But losing everything—"

"It's so much worse," Gwen said, nodding desperately. Rhys didn't understand. He couldn't possibly understand, and he didn't even like talking about it any more. Tosh understood, though. Thank God. "It didn't feel right to go on without Owen, and maybe it would never feel right without Ianto, but not going on at all couldn't possibly be more wrong."

"What can we do, though?" Tosh asked. "We don't have Jack, we don't have the base, we don't have hardly any of our old technology, we've got no support..."

"We've survived without Jack before," Gwen pointed out. "And without the base and without government support and without a lot of our tech."

"Never without all of them at once," Tosh said, "And I'm not sure that Ianto would agree that we survived." Tosh sighed.

They both took a sip of their drinks and Gwen bounced Anwen on her knee to quiet her down.

"If we had a plan," Tosh said, "I'd leave UNIT. I'd run off with you. If Jack were here—"

"Fuck Jack," Gwen said, before her Mummy Filter could catch it. "Jack isn't here. And he's not here because he doesn't have a plan. We're on our own."

"Then I think we're stuck," Tosh said.

Gwen shook her head. "I can't live like this much longer," she whispered, gripping her daughter slightly tighter as she said it.

"I can't either," Tosh admitted.

"It's tearing me apart from the inside out. It's tearing my family apart." Gwen looked down at her child and smiled. "Rhys and I had a row this morning. He wanted to take her to his parents' house. I told him to stuff it. His parents will have other chances to see her. You and I've been planning this for the better part of a year. You only had one chance."

Tosh smiled slightly and waved to the baby. Anwen stared at her cautiously. Anwen really wasn't used to being around strangers.

"He said he wasn't sure he wanted her around you," Gwen said quietly. Tosh looked up quickly, a little offended. "It was nothing personal. He said he didn't want her around Torchwood stuff. Didn't want me talking about Torchwood stuff in front of her..." Gwen kissed Anwen's head. "I said some things I don't want to say in front of her again and put her in the car."

"Thank you," Tosh said. "It means a lot that you wanted me to see her. Really." Tosh shut her eyes and sighed. "I just wish I had someone around to fight with." She took another drink of her coffee. "I dreamt about us, a few nights ago. The five of us back at the base, just the way things used to be... I nearly cried when I woke up in London." She let go of her coffee and let it rest on the table. Gwen reached over and grabbed her hand.

"I keep hoping something will happen," Gwen said. "Something really, really awful. So awful that UNIT calls me in and lets you go and Jack drops right out of the sky to help and we finally move on because we have to." Gwen swallowed hard. "And I know I shouldn't hope that. I know it's terrible and I'm being terrible and..."

"I hope so too," Tosh said quickly. "It is awful. But I need you and Jack back. I need Torchwood back. If a world-wide crisis is what it takes to make that happen..."

"We're awful people," Gwen said, laughing a little bit.

Tosh squeezed her hand. "Together."