"This is Torchwood Rhys," Gwen told her fiancé as he looked around the hub in bewilderment. "This is where I really work"
"Who is everyone else the?" Rhys asked as he finally noticed the rest of the team.
"I'm her boss, Captain Jack Harkness" Jack started as he stepped forward towards where Gwen and Rhys were standing. "This is Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones and Doctor Owen Harper" Jack told them pointing at the team members as he told Rhys their names.
Rhys looked at all of the team before stopping at Owen; he felt something in the back of his mind. It was like he was trying to remember something important that he had somehow forgotten. Something to do with Owen, which was strange because he hadn't met Owen, has he?
"Is everything alright love?" Gwen asked Rhys cutting off his one sided staring contest.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied before turning the conversation back to the subject at hand.
There wasn't much time for Gwen to wonder why Rhys kept staring at Owen before they were headed to the warehouse to try and save a space whale.
Once they had finished at the warehouse and Rhys had been fixed up, Gwen broke the rules once again. As always she got away with it, the team didn't get what was so special about Gwen Cooper that she was always put ahead of the rest of the team by Jack. She was even put ahead of his partner who Gwen seemed to treat like her personal slave.
As Gwen drove home to her injured fiancé she couldn't help but feel smug about what had happened. She had once again gotten her own way and showed the team that she was better than them because she has someone to fight for.
"Rhys, were are you?" Gwen yelled as she walked in the front door of their apartment.
"I'm in the bedroom!" Rhys shouted back.
Gwen headed to the bedroom wanting to make sure that her fiancé was alright and to see what he was doing. She thought that he would be in the living room watching TV. She was glad that she didn't have to Retcon Rhys partly because it would mean that she would have someone outside of Torchwood who she could talk to about all of the troubles at work. Mostly it was to show Ianto that she was the one that Jack really wanted and who he would leave him for if she ever decided to leave Rhys.
"What's up ? Gwen asked as she walked into the bedroom.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Gwen shrieked in shock as she noticed that Rhys was sticking her clothes into bin bags.
"You slept with that Doctor from work, didn't you? Rhys raged at his fiancé or should he say ex-fiancé.
"But that was a mistake and it was ages ago and it ended before Christmas. It's history and it doesn't matter anymore." Gwen begged hoping that she could get Rhys to understand and forgive her without having to Retcon him again. She didn't think that missing to Retcon would go unnoticed a second time.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter? It matters to me, you slept with someone else. You betrayed me and I saw the way that you looked at Jack and know that you would easily betray me again if Jack ever asked."
"I'm sorry Rhys I didn't mean to do it, I had a hard time at work and made a huge mistake because of it. Sleeping with Owen was one of my biggest regrets in our relationship." Gwen pleaded hoping that Rhys wouldn't leave her.
"What do you mean that cheating was the biggest regret in all of this? That is nowhere near the worst thing that you have done to me." Rhys snapped.
"What do you mean" Gwen questioned. "I haven't done anything worse than sleeping with Owen, I would remember.
"YOU DRUGGED ME!" Rhys screamed. "I was going to leave you for cheating on me and you drugged me to make me forget and that is unforgivable. You have proved to me that my mother was right about you, you really are a selfish bitch and I don't know what I ever saw in you."
"Please Rhys" Gwen begged. "We're supposed to be getting married soon. We can work this out can't we?"
"I don't think we can" Rhys replied. "I don't think it's worth even trying to get past this, I can never forgive you again. I want you out of my apartment. I'll phone when you can get the rest of your belongings" Rhys told her as he handed her the bags of clothes.
"Fine then I'll go" Gwen snapped before she stormed out of the apartment and headed towards the hub. She had like Rhys but she had know that after they had split up she could get what she really wanted, Jack. She was positive that Jack would leave Ianto the moment that she told him that Rhys had dumped her, and then all she had to do was to get Ianto fired and Retconned. It shouldn't be too hard he was only the teaboy, unlike her who was the heart of Torchwood.
"Jack, where are you" Gwen yelled over the cog door alarm as she entered the hub.
"I'm over here" Gwen heard Jack reply the sound coming from the couch in the main area of the hub.
When Gwen reached the couch she was shocked by what she had found. She had assumed that all of the others would have gone home by now and that Jack would be on himself. She didn't expect to find Ianto on the couch with Jack, he was lying across the couch and his head was rested on Jacks lap as he slept. It would have been one of the cutest things she had ever seen if it didn't make her so jealous.
"Rhys broke up with me" Gwen sobbed to Jack.
"What? Why?" Jack asked in confusion, they had seemed so happy before even after Rhys had been shot.
"He found out about Owen and he called off the wedding and it's all your fault" Gwen screamed at Jack.
"What's going on Jack?" Ianto mumbled as he snuggled into Jack's thigh.
"Everything is fine Yan, just try and go back to sleep ok babe" Jack softly replied to Ianto before turning back to Gwen.
"How is Rhys finding out about Owen and dumping you my fault?" Jack demanded, confused to what he could have done to get blamed.
"If you didn't get him involved with Torchwood, he would never have broken the Retcon" Gwen snapped once again without thinking before she opened her mouth.
"What Retcon?" Jack asked, as far as he knew they had never Retconned Rhys. It hasn't been a issue until today and even then they let Rhys keep his memories.
"A dose of Retconwent missing just after the new year, I was going to mention it to you but with everything that happened with Owen and the weevils it slipped my mind" Ianto muttered to Jack before yawning again.
"Ok Yan, me and Gwen are going to talk in my office for a bit" Jack told his young lover. "Try and get some more rest and I'll be back before you know it"
Jack stood up and wrapped his coat around Ianto and went to his office Gwen following him.
"I am really disappointed in you." Jack told Gwen looking at her in anger and disapproval. "I make loads of exceptions for you using the excuse that you had Rhys to think about. I let you finish early and get away with things that I would never have put up with if it was anything else. Just to find out that you abused my trust like you abused your fiancé."
"But Jack, it was just a mistake. It won't ever happen again, I promise you" Gwen begged.
"I'm not sure I trust the woman who would do such horrible things to the man she loves." Jack snapped back wishing that Gwen would just leave him alone.
"But I don't love Rhys" Gwen told Jack. "I love you."
"WHAT!" Jack yelled in shock and disgust.
"I love you, I always have since the day we first met and I know that you feel the same way about me "Gwen babbled on not noticing Jack getting angrier and angrier. " Now that me and Rhys have split up we can finally get together. All that's left to do is to fire and Retcon Ianto. I don't want it to be awkward in the hub once he realises that you've chosen me over him."
"What made you think that I loved you or that I would choose you over Ianto?" Jack asked.
"It's obvious the way that you look at me that there's something between us and that you love me. I know that you started to date Ianto so that you could get over the fact that you couldn't have me."
"You're wrong Gwen." Jack started. " I have never loved you, there was I time where I thought that you were like someone I used to know and care about but I know now that you are nothing like her. As to Ianto being my consolation prize, it isn't true I love him. Even I haven't managed to tell him it yet he knows."
"But what about us?" Gwen asked in desperation.
"Don't you understand" Jack questioned. "There was never was an us, it only existed in your mind. I really regret hiring you; I thought that you could make us more human and that you would be the heart of Torchwood. But I couldn't have been more wrong, all you are is a selfish bitch who couldn't care about anyone but herself"
"What are you going to do about it" Gwen laughed. "It's not like you can fire me, Retcon doesn't work remember."
"Who said that was the strongest Retcon we had?" Jack told her grinning at her in a way that really unsettled her.
Gwen was about to reply but she suddenly felt a stabbing pain in her arm before everything turned black.
A week later
It had been a week since Gwen had been fired, while at first it was a bit of a stretch being down a team member but they quickly found a replacement. PC Andy Davidson was Torchwoods new liaison, which made relations between Torchwood and the police less strained without Gwen's mightier than thou attitude. Maybe John was right, they needed a blond.
Rhys had moved on with his life, when he couldn't get in contact with Gwen he just gave her stuff to still saw Jack and Ianto occasionally but none of them ever brought up the missing Gwen, Rhys had an idea of what they could have done to her and felt that she deserved it. She did the same thing to him, it was like Karma really.
As for Miss Gwen Cooper, she could be found wandering the streets begging for money, with no clue to her life before she woke up a week ago or even of what her name was. She couldn't help but feel disgusted with herself of what she had to do for money but she had no choice. She had no home, no family and no money. She wondered what she would have done if she had these things and unsurprisingly none of her thoughts were anything like what had really happened.
Jack had finally had the courage to tell Ianto that he loved him and they moved in together, both finding that Ianto's flat was much bigger and was a lot more comfortable that Jack's room under his office and for the first time since Gwen's arrival everyone at Torchwood was happy. Well happier at least.