Inversion
By Ceefax
It was cold and wet. The rainwater had easily infiltrated Gwen's canvas trainers and now her socks were thoroughly sodden. With each step, her feet made unpleasant squelching sounds. Her quarry had escaped, sprinting away into the back streets with literally inhuman speed, ignoring her breathless yells that they weren't going to hurt it, they only wanted it to stop sitting on lampposts and screeching during the rush hour.
She found she couldn't much care. The alien was harmless, Jack had said so himself, and she could catch up with it some other time; when she had backup, and daylight, and dry clothes. Right now, she was giving up and going home.
Her jeans clung heavily and uncomfortably to her legs as she stomped along. Her car was back at the hub, but the alien had given her such a runaround that it would take her longer to walk back than it would to go straight home. Rhys could give her a lift in the morning. She shivered, yawned behind her hand, and texted Jack. 'Aln got awy. Goin hm. C U 2mrw.'
With a soft obedient beep, the phone delivered the message. She stuck it back in her pocket, pushed wet strands of hair out of her face, hunched her shoulders against the elements, and trudged onwards.
She let herself into the flat as quietly as she could. The wet rubber of her soles squeaked on the floor. She rid herself of bag, coat, shoes and socks in the front hall, and peeled off her jeans as she crossed the living room. The cold, damp skin beneath looked red and chafed. She pulled her shirt off over her head and scrubbed it over her hair to get rid of the worst of the wetness. She shoved her bundle of wet clothes straight into the washing machine and tiptoed into the bedroom in just her underwear.
She hadn't switched the light on, not wanting to disturb Rhys, and thanks to the lights in the outer rooms of the flat, she had lost her night vision. She groped her way carefully across to the bed, with fond anticipation of the warm softness that awaited her. There was a solid form in her side of the bed.
"Rhys," she said softly, lifting the covers to climb in, "you're on my side, get over." She pushed at his shoulder.
But instead of the sleepy acquiescence she'd expected, he came awake with a frightened start. "What..." He pushed back, away from her. "What the fuck?!"
Gwen took a step back in surprise. "Rhys... Rhys, love, it's only me..."
The light at the other side of the bed snapped on, revealing Rhys's frightened and confused face. Seeing her husband gaping at her like she was some kind of monster sent a cold little spike of hurt through her.
Behind Rhys, on the other side of the bed, a figure sat upright, eyes wide with bewilderment and disbelief. "Gwen?"
"Ianto?" She instinctively crossed her arms over her bra-clad breasts.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"You know her?" Rhys demanded, turning to him. "Just handing out keys to any passing nutters now, are we?"
"What..." Gwen backed away a few more steps, feeling goose-bumps crawl over her exposed skin. "What are you... What are you doing?" The righteous anger she should have been feeling at catching Rhys in bed with someone else (and Ianto of all people) was escaping her.
Rhys was having no problems in that department. "We live 'ere!" he shouted. "You crazy bitch, get out!"
Heart pounding, Gwen turned and stumbled out of the bedroom. "Gwen," Ianto called after her, "Gwen, wait a minute..." but she slammed the bedroom door behind her.
Now she came to actually ilook/i at the living room, rather than drifting through on exhausted autopilot, she could see the differences. Arms still wrapped tight around herself, she turned in a circle, taking in all the things out of place, things missing, new things she'd never seen before...
"Gwen," Ianto said from behind her.
She turned to see him emerging from the bedroom, just pulling a faded t-shirt down over his stomach. Through the doorway, she could see Rhys, wrapped in his dressing gown, glaring at her. She looked away.
Ianto took her by the shoulders. "Gwen," he said, in a gentle, careful voice, as though he were trying to talk her off a ledge. "What's going on? What're you doing here?"
"I live here! We live here, me and Rhys!"
"I don't think so, love," Rhys snapped from the bedroom doorway.
"What have you done to him?" Gwen demanded, grabbing a double handful of Ianto's t-shirt. "Ianto, what the hell have you done?"
"Nobody's done anything," he replied, still in the same gentle tone. "I've lived here..." he glanced over at Rhys, "about two years, now. You've never even been here before!"
She backed away from him and ran back to her coat, hanging dark and heavy with rainwater in the hall. Its fabric was very cold against her hands as she dragged her phone out of the pocket. Ianto came up behind her and wrapped a warm, dry, three-quarter-length woollen overcoat around her shoulders. She pulled away from his touch, scrolling through numbers with shaking fingers.
Rhys leant against the counter separating kitchen from living room, scowling in her direction. She turned her back on both men as the wonderfully familiar, American-accented, "hello?" sounded in her ear.
"Jack! Jack, thank god, it's Gwen, something very weird's going on..."
"Gwen?" Jack asked, sounding confused and doubtful.
In the background, Gwen thought she heard someone say 'what?'
"I'm at home, Jack, except Ianto's here, and he's saying I don't live here, and... and..." She lowered her voice, "I think he's retconned Rhys."
There was a pause at the other end of the phone, then Jack said, cautiously, "is Ianto there now?"
"Please, Jack! I dunno what's going on, we've got to..."
"Just lemme talk to Ianto," Jack interrupted, brisk and businesslike. "We're gonna sort all this out."
Her teeth clenched, Gwen thrust the phone at Ianto, then retreated to the wall, clutching the borrowed coat around herself and staring down at the floor to avoid meeting Rhys's hostile, hurtful gaze.
"Jack?" Ianto said, stepping quickly away from Gwen and Rhys and lowering his voice. "No... No, she just showed up, and... My place. Okay, thanks." The phone made its familiar little chirrup as he closed it.
"So, what is it this time?" Rhys asked, his voice quiet and angry. Gwen let herself slide down the wall of the hallway and hugged her own knees. "First you were working for the tourist board," Rhys continued, "then it was this top-secret special ops thing, now... What? You're the warden at some mental institution?"
"It's not like that," Ianto said, soft and purposefully calm. "I really don't know what's happenin', please, let's just wait until Jack gets here..."
"Jack!" Rhys bellowed, infuriated. "Oh, yeah, Jack Harkness, the answer to everyone's problems!" Gwen pressed her hands to her mouth to hide her despairing smile, even though she was out of sight of both men.
Rhys's voice dropped low enough that she couldn't quite make out the words, but Ianto's impassioned and frustrated, "for the last time, I am not sleeping with Jack!" made the content quite clear.
"You've lied about everything else," Rhys persisted. "Why the 'ell should I believe you?"
Hearing this distorted mirror image of terrible rows she'd had with Rhys herself made Gwen feel she might really be going mad. She pulled her soggy bag closer and brushed her fingers over the shape of the gun within, taking comfort from its heavy, solid presence.
Jack arrived with Tosh in tow. She waved one of her blue glowing things at Gwen, then produced a needle. "Umm..." she said, "do you mind if I...?" Gwen let her prick a drop of blood from the tip of her thumb. "Match," Tosh told Jack, holding up the device for him to see. "One hundred percent. It's her."
"But how can that be?" Jack asked, looking at Tosh.
"How can what be?" Gwen demanded.
"Look," said Jack, "how about we take this back to the base, and..."
"No way," Rhys broke in. He was standing by the kitchen counter, still in his dressing gown and looking ridiculously vulnerable, despite his stormy expression and firmly folded arms. "I wanna know what the hell's going on."
Jack's expression hardened. "Look, I know where you're coming from, Rhys, but..."
"No, I don't think you do, Jack." His voice was rising, steadily. "I've put up with so much shit since you came waltzin' into our lives, and I'm..."
"Rhys, don't," Ianto said, putting a hand on his arm.
Rhys turned to face him. "And I'm not putting up with it any more," he continued, softly but firmly.
Ianto looked down, not meeting his eyes.
"Oi," Rhys said, turning his chin upwards. "You can't ask me to turn a blind eye to all the weird stuff when the weird stuff starts turnin' up in our bloody bedroom."
Ianto leaned in and gave him a quick, apologetic kiss. Gwen, still smarting from being referred to as 'the weird stuff', winced.
"I'm sorry," Ianto said. "I don't know what all this is, but it'll be all right." He gave him a small, hopeful smile. "Just go back to bed and let us sort it out, yeah?"
"No." Rhys glared at Jack, defiantly.
Gwen felt ridiculous. In place of her sodden clothes, Ianto had lent her a jumper, jeans and trainers. The sleeves of the jumper fell over her hands. She shoved them back, yet again, and stared miserably out the SUV's window, watching the raindrops hit the glass.
Tosh was in the front passenger seat beside Jack. In the back, Ianto sat between Gwen and Rhys like a human buffer zone, glancing back and forth between them. Gwen looked over at Rhys, only to find that he'd chosen that moment to look over at her. They both turned away, hastily.
Tosh had a keyboard folded down over her lap, and was tapping away in an absorbed fashion. Jack was saying nothing, just staring straight ahead out of the windscreen, his jaw tight, and it was a relief when they finally pulled up outside the hub.
"So, er, this is it, then?" Rhys asked, looking around the dark plass, then raising questioning eyebrows at Ianto.
"Why don't you take him in the scenic way?" Jack said, with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. He closed his hand on Gwen's arm and steered her towards the tourist office. She craned back over her shoulder, watching Ianto lead Rhys over to the invisible lift. She could hear their voices, fading behind her as they walked away.
Jack kept his hand on her arm, as though she'd been arrested. She glanced over at Tosh, who shot her a quick, apologetic smile, then looked away. "Look," Gwen said, forcing her voice to a calmness she didn't feel, "if you know something, if you know what's happened to Rhys, then tell me, please."
"We don't know what's going on," Jack told her. His grip on her arm didn't waver until the three of them reached the vast dark dish of the hub's main floor. Rhys was standing to one side, staring around in wonder as though he'd never seen it before. Ianto stood beside him, looking worried and un-Iantolike in a hoodie and jeans. Gwen reached up and swiped away tears that had barely begun to form.
"Why don't we all sit down and talk this through," Jack said, grimly. "Ianto?"
Ianto nodded and headed away towards the kitchen. Rhys watched him go, but followed the others up to the boardroom, still gaping wide-eyed.
Jack looked at him, sideways. "So, Rhys, welcome to our headquarters."
Rhys shook his head in wonderment. "I think I preferred the tourist board story. So, this is all for anti-terrorist stuff, ye... What the bloody hell..."
Myfanwy had chosen that moment to swoop down low over their heads, outlined perfectly against the lights, and unmistakable as the impossibility she was.
"What was that?" Rhys asked, his voice doing the tight, forced-calm thing it did when he was choking back the desire to yell.
"Pterodactyl," Tosh said, matter-of-factly.
"Pterodactyl?"
Jack stopped, sighed, and turned to face him. "We're not an anti-terrorist unit, Rhys. There's a rift in time and space that runs right through the city, and we're responsible for dealing with what falls through it. Things and people out of place and out of time. Mostly benign, but sometimes they can be dangerous. Or just unexpected." He shot a look at Gwen, who glowered back. "And that's what we do."
Rhys was still looking upwards, his eyes following Myfanwy as she swooped around the confines of the hub. "But... dinosaurs? In Cardiff?"
Ianto threaded his way through them, carrying a tray of drinks. "As a matter of fact, she's a pteranodon, and not technically a dinosaur." He raised an eyebrow at Jack. "If you've finished showing off...?"
Jack frowned. "Was I showing off?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder. Gwen followed his gaze, gasped, and staggered back a step.
"Course you were!" said the figure emerging from Jack's office. She was wearing soft grey tracksuit trousers, and a white t-shirt that was rather too big for her. Her feet were just in socks. Her long, dark hair was a little mussed, as though it had been combed recently, but only with fingers. She grinned at Jack, revealing white teeth with a thin gap between the two in front, and took his arm, looking at Gwen curiously.
"What..." Gwen breathed, gaping at her double.
"Come on," Jack said, briskly, leading the way into the boardroom, "let's see if we can't figure this out."
They arranged themselves around the boardroom table. Ianto doled out mugs.
"So, tell us your side," Jack said to Gwen, his hands folded on the table in front of him. The extra Gwen sat to his right, waiting with polite interest. Ianto sat down between Rhys and Tosh, met Gwen's eye, and gave her a small smile.
"I... I dunno what to say..."
"Tell us what you did tonight."
"Well, I... er... you sent me after this alien. I can't remember what you called it, an Aldebraxian or something?"
"Eldeflaktion?" Jack asked, "red, with spines? Very noisy?"
"Yes, that's it. I was chasing it around all evening, but then it was getting late and it was raining, and I couldn't catch it, so I thought I'd call it a night. I went home, and..." She waved a hand in Rhys and Ianto's direction to indicate the nightmare she'd walked into. "That's it. That's all."
"Tell us about home," Jack instructed, gently.
Gwen heaved a deep, shaky sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I dunno what you want me to tell you. Me and Rhys are married. That was our flat." Rhys gave a disbelieving snort. "I dunno what's going on, Jack!" Gwen wailed, covering her face with her hands. "Please, just tell me what's going on! He's my husband, he's... he's not gay!"
"Yes," Ianto muttered under his breath, "I'm just that good."
"Um," Tosh offered, "I think I might know what happened."
"Go on, Tosh," Jack said, "put us out of our misery."
She tapped buttons, and a map of the city appeared on the flatscreen monitor at the end of the table. "Can you show me the exact route you took this evening?" she asked Gwen, gently.
Gwen rubbed her eyes. Ianto leaned across and pushed a box of tissues in her direction. "Thanks," she said, weakly, and blew her nose. She squinted at the thin lines of streets and houses on the screen. "Oh god... I couldn't even tell you."
"Well, do you remember if you went past here?" Tosh persisted. A yellow dot appeared in the map.
"I... Yes! Opposite that Indian restaurant with the purple wallpaper! Yes, I chased it right past there!"
Tosh brought up a line graph. "There was a negative rift spike at that location tonight at twelve past nine. Does that sound right?"
Gwen thought about it. "Probably. Maybe. But I'd know if I'd been through the rift, wouldn't I? And it doesn't... rewrite history, or whatever, does it?"
Everyone turned to look at Jack. He pressed his fingers to his lips, thoughtfully. "We know it's a rift in time and space," he said slowly. "Could it have interdimensional properties as well? Tosh, was that spike unusual in any way?"
"No. In fact, it's one of the simpler wave forms. We could use the rift manipulator to duplicate its inverse pattern easily, if we thought that was a good idea...?" Her eyes flicked around the table.
"It's your call," Jack said to Gwen. "It might get you home, but we've no way to be sure. D'you wanna risk it?"
Beside him, the other Gwen put her head on one side and gave her a look of sympathetic worry that Gwen found she wanted very much to thump. At the opposite end of the table, the Rhys-that-wasn't-hers was leaning close to Ianto, listening to his quiet explanation of the basics of the rift manipulator. Gwen gritted her teeth at the sight. "Yes. Send me back."
"Okay, then. Tosh, Gwen... Er, you, that is..." he clasped his hand briefly over that of the woman at his side, and she smiled at him, "set up the manipulator, tell us what we need to do." He shoved back his chair and surged to his feet. "Ianto, with me; you two, stay here, don't touch anything."
They all filed out. "Be right back," Ianto told Rhys, clasping his shoulder.
Left alone with Rhys, Gwen shifted awkwardly in her chair, not wanting to look at him.
"Erm, look," he began, sounding as uncomfortable as she felt, "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I thought..."
"It's okay," she interrupted, plastering her best everything's-going-to-be-all-right smile across her face. "It's not your fault, I mean, anybody would have..."
"Yes, well, good," he interrupted in turn. "So long as we..."
"Yes, absolutely. Look, um, I'm just going to..." She gestured vaguely at the door.
"Okay. Yep. Right."
She fled the boardroom, feeling a rush of relief as soon as she was out of the presence of the stranger wearing her husband's face. She made her way down towards the shiny column of the rift manipulator, meaning to offer Tosh and the other her a hand, but paused at the sound of voices from Jack's office.
"You can't keep asking me to do this," Ianto was saying, his voice tight with controlled anger. "We know what effect cumulative doses have..."
"It's not like I'm making you dope him up every week," Jack snapped back, and with a cold sinking feeling, Gwen realised what they were talking about.
"I'm not doing it," Ianto said.
"Yes, you are," Jack replied, his voice low and dangerous.
Without even thinking about it, Gwen marched through the doorway. "Ianto's right, Jack," she announced.
"What?" Jack rounded on her.
She folded her arms defensively, aware of how she must look in the oversized clothes. "You shouldn't retcon Rhys. Not now he knows. It isn't fair on him, and it isn't fair on Ianto."
"Excuse me?" Jack glared at her. Ianto just looked astonished and a little embarrassed. "I don't remember asking for your opinion."
"Everything all right?" the other Gwen asked, appearing in the doorway.
Undeterred, Gwen continued. "You don't need to worry. If he's anything like my Rhys, then he'll keep it all a secret, no problem. And..."
Jack levelled a finger at her. "You don't know that man. You don't know any of us, and you don't know anything about this situation."
"Yeah, but..."
The other Gwen laid a comforting hand on her arm. "Look," she said softly, "Jack's right. We have to keep this all secret. It's a matter of security; if one person knows, especially a civilian..."
"You are a civilian," Gwen snarled at her doppelganger. "It's Torchwood, it's not the bloody army."
"Ladies, please," Jack said, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Let's settle this the civilised way. By doing exactly what I tell you." They both turned to glare at him. "Or oil wrestling, whichever you prefer," he added.
"Jack, I'm serious. Listen, something like this happened to us, and Rhys..."
"Stop," Jack told her. "I hear you, but..."
"No you don't! You don't have to keep everyone on such a tight leash, Jack! Believe it or not, this whole thing could function perfectly well without you, Torchwood does not revolve around you! You have to trust your people. And if you don't think I'm in a position to judge whether you should trust Rhys, then ask Ianto! He should know, shouldn't he, but you're not listening to him, either!"
"This is not a discussion!" Jack yelled. "And you know what else? This isn't a democracy!"
"I know how you feel," the other Gwen told her, her quiet, calm tone in marked contrast to Jack's, "but there's more at stake here than just Ianto and Rhys. We have to think of the bigger picture. We have to."
"How would you feel?" Gwen asked, rounding on her. Ianto stared down at his feet, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else. "How would you feel if you had to lie to the person you loved every day? And how would you feel when they found out?" The other Gwen exchanged a meaningful look with Jack. "You can't keep this stuff secret. Not from the people that matter to you. I'm not talking about handing over security access or nothing, just let him remember what he knows now."
"Who's he gonna tell, anyway?" Ianto asked, turning his eyes up to Jack.
Jack shook his head. "That's how these things start. It goes both ways, he'll be a danger to us, and we'll be a danger to him. Ianto, he's better off out of it, believe me."
"That's easy for you to say," Gwen snapped, shooting a glare at her double.
Jack threw up his hands. "Look, tell you what, let's just concentrate on the interdimensional thing first. We'll solve the Rhys problem later, okay?" He herded them towards the door.
Gwen gave him a cynical look, and took Ianto's arm as they all trooped out of Jack's office. He glanced down at her hand in surprise. "Don't give in to him," she murmured in his ear.
"I wasn't planning on it," he murmured back.
"Good. I didn't let him retcon my Rhys, and everything's been so much better since he's known. He's even helped us out a couple of times."
"Er... how?"
"Well... one time we borrowed a lorry."
"Ah."
The object of their discussion was down in the centre of the hub's basin, chatting to Tosh. He was carrying the tray of empty mugs. As they watched, he took it away up to the kitchen. "My god, you've got him well trained," Gwen said with a smile. "Mine's not bad, but I do still find cups in odd places."
"Thank you. I do my best."
They trotted down the steps to join Tosh. Behind them, Jack and the other Gwen had vanished back into the boardroom. "Still calculating," Tosh said. "Shouldn't be long."
Rhys reappeared and wrapped an arm around Ianto's waist, grinning expansively at his surroundings. "I dunno how the bloody 'ell you kept quiet about this, man. I'd've been telling everyone."
"But you're not going to, are you?" Ianto said, warningly.
"No, course not," he casually replied. "Nobody'd believe me, anyway. Would you look at the size of this place, though... I suppose you need the space, though, if you've got dinosaurs running around the place."
"There's just the one," Tosh protested with a smile.
"And she's not a dinosaur," Ianto insisted. "Not technically."
"So, er," Gwen began, twisting her fingers together, nervously, "what do we think the chances are of this rift-thing working, then?"
"I don't see why it wouldn't," Tosh said, brightly.
"Good. So it's not likely to... I dunno, dump me into space or anything, then?"
Tosh thought about it. "Almost certainly not."
"Besides," Ianto said, raising an eyebrow, "it's that or hang around 'ere."
"Yeah, I think one of me's enough for one dimension."
With a clattering of metal steps, Jack and the other Gwen descended. "So, Tosh," Jack began, exuberantly, "do we have a go?"
"Just about," Tosh told him. "Er, you'll need to get back to the same place you were when you came through," she said to Gwen. "Sorry."
"Not a problem," said Jack, with a grin. He looked up at Rhys and Ianto. "I'll drop you two back home, then we'll see what this baby can do." He rapped his knuckles on the rift manipulator's metal casing.
"That's daft, man," Rhys exclaimed. "It's right on the way, isn't it? And I've never seen anyone get sent to another dimension before!"
Jack gave Ianto a look.
"No," Ianto said to Rhys, tight and annoyed, "and you're not going to."
"But..."
"This isn't a sideshow, Rhys! This stuff's dangerous, you have to stay out of it. I need you to stay out of it."
"But I'm supposed to just stand back and let you mess with all this stuff, yeah? This stuff that's too dangerous for me?"
"That's my job," Ianto said.
"Look," the other Gwen interjected, "why don't I give you two a lift home, hmm? I'll just go and get some shoes on." She ran back up the steps towards Jack's office, leaving an uncomfortable silence behind her.
"Well," Tosh said finally, attempting a bright tone and almost succeeding, "it's all set to go on this end." She handed Jack a portable scanner. "You'll need to make sure she's at this exact location, and that you're at a safe distance." He arched a questioning eyebrow. "Fifty metres or so should do it. Then call me when you're ready."
"Thanks," Gwen said, putting a hand on her arm.
"Good luck."
"The other Gwen trotted back down the steps, shoes on feet and keys in hand. "Ready! Are you two off as well?" she asked Jack.
"Yep, we're all set." He raised the scanner as proof.
She turned to Gwen and held out a hand. "Well... I hope you get home okay."
Gwen shook it. "Thanks."
"So," Rhys said, giving her a rueful smile, and offering his own hand, "you and me, eh?"
"Oh, yes." She took his hand and clasped it in both of hers.
"Dunno how I keep ending up with all these gorgeous people," he said, with a smile at Ianto, who rolled his eyes.
"Oh, don't be daft," Gwen said, grinning at him, "you're lovely, you are." To her delight, Rhys went rather pink. "Come on," Gwen said firmly, taking Ianto's arm, "you're going to walk me to the cars." She marched him determinedly out of the base, setting a fast pace to draw them ahead of the others.
"So," he said, a little awkwardly, "this has been... weird. Interesting, but weird."
"You want to hear something interesting?" she asked with a mischievous smile, "where I come from, you and Jack are an item."
"Do not let Rhys hear you say that," he demanded, eyes wide. "I 'ave enough trouble as it is."
Gwen laughed. "Why don't you just tell him Jack's straight? After all, if he's seeing the other me..."
"Rhys'll never buy that," Ianto protested. "He's met him."
She hugged his arm tightly and laughed. "Seriously though," she began, lowering her voice just in case, "you..."
"I know, don't let Jack retcon Rhys."
"Right. And... and I think your Jack needs someone to take a firm line with him. You have to tell him when he's wrong. And stick to your guns, yell at him if you have to."
"Okay."
"I mean it! You have to take some of the pressure off him, and the only way he's gonna let you do that is if you make him."
"Okay, okay, I'll yell at him, I promise."
They reached the cars. Gwen turned, and hugged him properly. He stiffened in surprise, then relaxed a little and laid his hands lightly on her shoulders. "You look after Rhys for me, okay?" she said.
"Course."
"Okay, then."
She pulled back. The others were approaching rapidly, and she moved away from Ianto to wait by the black bulk of the SUV.
"Let's go," Jack told her, opening the driver's door. She waved to Ianto. He raised a hand in return, as did Rhys and the other Gwen. She climbed into the SUV beside Jack.
Mirroring the drive to the hub, he said nothing as they negotiated the dark wet streets. Gwen watched the passing streetlights, falling into an exhausted state of near-hypnotism. They were soon pulling up outside the Indian restaurant with the purple wallpaper. She blinked sleepily in through the window at the chairs inverted on tables. It really was very purple wallpaper.
Jack was already striding through the rain. She fought her way free of seatbelt and door, and jogged after him.
"Okay," he said, consulting Tosh's device, "you need to be... a couple of feet to the left of that manhole cover." He pointed, the light from the scanner picking out individual raindrops in a blue halo around his other hand.
"Right," she said, smothering a yawn with the back of her hand.
"So. Goodbye, then," Jack said, giving her a lopsided smile. "It's been... frightening, having two of you around."
Gwen smiled back, and stood up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Take care of them," she said, "and let them take care of you." She turned her back on his slightly surprised expression and walked away. A couple of feet to the left of the manhole cover, she stopped.
"That's it," Jack told her. He raised his hand to his ear. "Tosh, we're ready."
"Say thanks to Tosh for me," Gwen called.
Jack grinned, the rakish, delighted grin Gwen was familiar with, and she couldn't help smiling back. "Gwen Cooper," he said, his voice filling the dark, wet, deserted street. "I'll see you around."
There was a momentary deep rushing sound, accompanied a split-second later by a fierce wind that whipped Gwen's hair around her face...
Then there was nothing. Just the same dark wet street, but devoid of both Jack and SUV. Gwen turned in a circle, scanning her surroundings. There was nothing but the rain.
She tucked her hair back behind her ears and pulled her phone out of her pocket. The little screen was dead and dark. "Oh, great," she muttered to herself, "they've landed me in the dimension of buggered phones..." She shook it, angrily. "Come on, you bloody..." Suddenly, the little device burst into life, and Gwen let out a half-gasp, half-laugh of relief. With hands slick from rain and clumsy from cold, she scrolled through numbers and selected 'home'.
It rang. She took shelter in the restaurant's doorway, clasping the phone to her ear. Eventually, sleepily, Rhys answered.
"Rhys! Rhys, it's me..."
"Oh, 'allo." There was a rustling and a clonking of springs. In her mind's eye, she could clearly see him rolling over onto his back and reaching out for the lamp. "What's up, then?"
"Oh, I just... I'll be home soon, that's all. Were you asleep?"
"No, no," he protested, obviously lying. "That's okay, it's not that late."
Gwen's watch claimed it to be four in the morning. A quick glance at her phone display revealed that it thought it was quarter to ten. "Rhys, love, you couldn't run us a nice hot bath, could you? I've had 'ell of a night."
"Yeah, think we could stretch to that. Anything you can tell me about?"
"Oh, you know. Just runnin' around in the rain..." She broke off abruptly as a series of associations flashed through her mind, ending with the vivid mental picture of her sodden clothes sitting patiently in the shiny metal drum of a washing machine in another dimension. "Ah, bollocks!"
"Gwen?" Rhys asked, alarmed by her vehement tone, "what is it?"
"I left my trousers behind!"
the end