Better the Illusions that Exalt
ann no aku
Plot: Gwen and Rhys recall their wedding day, and Rhys remembers the past. Introspection.
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood.
Notes: Takes place in the Torchwood episode Something Borrowed. Contains mostly quotes.
*****
Chapter Two: Devoured by Lies
"You retconned our families?" Gwen asks, neither surprised nor upset. "Probably for the best. Don't want my mum remembering what happened to her today."
Rhys stares, shocked at the thought of his family—no, their family and friends drugged to forget. Something distant and familiar niggles at the back of his mind.
"Maybe the happy couple shouldn't either," Jack suggests, pushing two flutes of champagne to them.
Drugs in alcohol, people asleep—why was this so familiar? Rhys looks at the offering and swallows hard.
"You drunk?" Gwen asks, pouring whiskey into a glass.
"Two pints is all I could get down," he answers as he comes through the foyer. "They've gone on without me." Rhys joins her on the couch and takes the drink. Even after the beer he had, it still calms his nerves. "Look, Gwen," he starts.
"I need to tell you something," she interrupts.
He gulps nervously. "What sorta thing?" A thousand 'sorta things' run through his mind in the second before she answers—she's pregnant, they need a break, she was fired, she-
"I've been sleeping—I've been having sex with someone else . . .from work. His name's Owen. I mean, he's a bit of a tosser, actually, and it's all gonna stop, but –"
"Shut up," he hisses. Rhys didn't expect this, he should have (and knows it), but it is still a shock. Especially since it wasn't Jack. Who is Owen, anyway?
"I'm sorry," Gwen continues as though he didn't say anything. "I'm really sorry."
"You wouldn't do that." She can't have. But all those late hours at work, their sex life practically non-existent-!
"But I have."
Rhys is silent, desperate to understand. How could she do this to him? How could she be so selfish and-? "Th-Then why're you telling me?"
Gwen stands up, frustrated. "Because I'm ashamed, and I'm angry, and I wa-want, I need . . .I need you to forgive me." She pauses as if trying to collect herself. "And because I've drugged you."
His blood runsn cold. "Y-You've done what?" he sputters in rage, standing up, wanting nothing more than to get away as far and as fast as he can. But her can't; it's already taken affect.
"Just sit down, it's nothing." Though her tone is soothing, her words can't calm him. "It's-It's just an amnesia pill. Tosh had said you'd wake up tomorrow and forget everything."
Other people know, people from work. They were a joke. He collapses onto the couch.
"Rhys."
"God, you selfish . . .bitch!" he spits, shying away from her. He wishes for the strength to shove her away.
"I know. I just thought it'd give us a chance," she begins, sitting back down next to him.
"Chance for what?" he wants to scream, but can't find the energy.
"A chance to get everything out in the open, you know? Get everything out." She is calm, as though everything she did is normal.
Tiredly, Rhys sighs, hoping, praying that all this is just a bad dream.
"Rhys! Stay with me, Rhys." Gwen cups his face, her fingers feel cool against his blazing skin. She stars at him, willing him to look back. "Say you forgive me. Say, 'It's alright, Gwen. Gwen, it's alright. Gw-' Say it. Please, Rhys. Rhys," she begs, slapping his cheek. "Just say it once. Say it once, 'I forgive you'. Rhys! Please!" Desperation consumes her, but it is lost on him. He is fading.
"Say it! Say you forgive me! Say you forgive me. Say it!" Gwen demands, angry that can't hear her. "Say it, please say it." Again, she taps his face. He must wake up, he needs to wake up. "Say it, please."
But Rhys has already passed out.
He catches Gwen eying the drinks. "No, thank you," she says. "There'll be no secrets in this marriage." She looks to her husband.
For a moment, Rhys can't breathe. There already was a secret in their marriage, one that he knows she'd never admit to.
She is a fake. It is all a lie.
